The Arms of Krupp, a massive volume, lumbered onto the bestseller lists in 1968. I was a wee bit younger then, and not afraid of large numbers of pages, and what I took away from William Manchester’s riveting tale of a family that manufactured arms and armor for centuries was my admiration for aContinue reading “Catching Up”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Responsibility
We’ve discussed this before: the postcard was a twentieth century text message. For a few pennies, you could send a brief note across town in a couple of hours. The postcard companies knew what you were doing, and provided cards which came with pre-written sentiments which would start the message for you so youContinue reading “Responsibility”
Stolen Sweets
I’m sure people do these things today, but they sure did them a lot more often in that other world I visit, the world of the Postcard Craze of 1908 or so. Young men slipped out after curfew to exchange a few words under the girlfriend’s window, women put pies to cool on theContinue reading “Stolen Sweets”
Beery Ballads
At this point in my career, I suppose it is unlikely that I shall ever be invited to give my lecture on Victorian Adaptations of New Communications technologies, in which I discuss, briefly, Thomas Edison’s career in pornographic phonograph records. It is not the best known of his inventions, but Thomas Edison was theContinue reading “Beery Ballads”
Fifty Years Agone
I was trundling through the Interwebs, considering things to blog about, and reflected that although I had glanced at 1921 in search of things to commemorate, I had not looked to 1971. I do things like this. I decide on the research, figuring “What’s the worst that could happen?” The worst that couldContinue reading “Fifty Years Agone”
Selling the Fizz
So it went from a mild over-the-counter medication to something people wanted banned. Well, yes, that happened to cocaine, too, but I was thinking of another product, which took longer to make the transition. And along the way, it slid its way into our culture in many ways, SOME of which can be illustratedContinue reading “Selling the Fizz”
You Tell Me
Pop culture is cotemporary, evoking some facet of its time. Much of it quickly becomes a cliché, and grows tired. It disappears for a while and then, just as everyone has thrown away their copies of that hot comic book and photographs of that singing sensation, they are rediscovered, becoming Nostalgia and/or Collectibles. Continue reading “You Tell Me”
The Romance of Science
As you no doubt recall from our last thrilling episode, we were looking at some of the ways postcard makers showed the comic possibilities of new technologies. The automobile, the telephone, the phonograph: all were used for gags ranging from the merely cheerful to the rollicking. (If you were not, personally, rollicked by anyContinue reading “The Romance of Science”
Oldfangled
I am sure that the first Stone Age citizen who watched his neighbor cooking his dinner over this newfangled thing called fire shook his head and said, “Society’s getting too involved with these new inventions.” I say this as one who is sitting here writing this column on a machine which I once wouldContinue reading “Oldfangled”
Once and Future Lingo
I knew “23 skidoo” basically just as a jocular reference to days gone by, a slightly raffish expression now passe. (Looking back, I think I got this impression from Bugs Bunny in one of his cartoons mocking the Gay Nineties.) I picked up later on the fact that when it was in use, theContinue reading “Once and Future Lingo”
Blogsy Babbles 