Anti-Bear Flamethrower

David Girag of Glendale, CA recently was granted a patent (11,877,572) for a "portable flame propelling device" to deter an attack by an animal "such as a bear, lion, dog, or human."

I think this would just anger a bear, and then cause a forest fire.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 30, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals | Fireworks and Pyrotechnics | Patents | Weapons

The Highwaymen, “The Bird Man”

For our category of Actors Who Unwisely Attempt "Singing"

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 30, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals | Crime | Movies | Music | 1960s

Face-O-Metrics

Jessica Krane was the inventor of "face-o-metrics." This was a technique for removing wrinkles by stroking your face. At least, Krane claimed that wrinkles would disappear.



I like that the blurb on the jacket of her book declares, "BASIC WOO is for you— and so is EXTENDED WOO!"

'Basic Woo' was one of her wrinkle-removal techniques, but of course 'woo' can also mean bunk, poppycock, etc. Was the highlighting of this word some kind of surreptitious message to readers from a copywriter?

My Macbook's dictionary notes that the meaning of 'woo' as bunk originated in the 1970s "probably in imitation of a wailing sound traditionally attributed to ghosts and humorously associated with mysticism and the supernatural." So, since Krane's book was published in 1969, 'woo' wouldn't have yet had it's modern meaning. Still, an odd coincidence.



You can read Krane's book online at archive.org.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 29, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Books | 1960s | Skin and Skin Conditions

Konjola

Read the full story here.

It was a vegetable concoction with a high alcohol content that could be sold without prescription and gave comfort to many who could not or would not find a bootlegger to ease the strictures of Prohibition.

Konjola sold like bathtub gin in the Roaring Twenties. Gilbert and Roberta started Mosby Medicine by mixing up tubs of Konjola in their basement and bottling it themselves. By 1927, Mosby owned a factory on Reading Road in Avondale and was planning an even bigger complex up the road. Mosby bought a spectacular neon sign, 84 feet long and 32 feet high, to advertise Konjola on the central pier of the Atlantic City boardwalk.

And then it all fell apart.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 29, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Regionalism | Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil | 1920s | Alcohol

Wife asks separation from meowing husband

Holland Evening Sentinel - Apr 3, 1969

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 28, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Divorce | Cats | 1960s

Cosmohedron

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 28, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Aliens | Surrealism | Cartoons

Anting

A strange behavior engaged in by birds. From wikipedia:

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 27, 2024 - Comments (6)
Category: Animals | Insects and Spiders

Esquimalt Hockey Queen

For two or three years in the mid-Sixties, the little Canadian town of Esquimalt featured a Hockey Queen. I am surprised there is no national Canadian Hockey Queen.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 27, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Sports | North America

Debbie Merritt, the half-baked girl

It looks like Debbie Merritt didn't just burn. She got absolutely fried.

When the ad says that this was a "medically supervised test," does that mean a doctor sat there and watched as she roasted herself?

Ladies' Home Journal - June 1970

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 26, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Advertising | 1970s | Skin and Skin Conditions

Follies of the Madmen #586

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 26, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: History | Advertising | Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil | 1960s