Pass the Dutchie

From 1980s Childhood by Michael A. Johnson:


I didn't know that. I had always assumed it was a song about cannabis. Though it's a bit odd to imagine a group of people passing a cooking pot around.

A dutchie
Image source: Jamaican patwah

Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 11, 2017 - Comments (8)
Category: Music, 1980s

Follies of the Madmen #328

As you can see, this ad appeared in the April issue of EBONY magazine, thus rendering any possible connection to Halloween, the time of ghosts, utterly irrelevant. What is the excuse for the pun, then? Because Herb-Ox represents the ghost of a cow? It's utterly arbitrary and unseductive and not germane to the product. Yet some ad guy obviously thought it was genius.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 11, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Superstition, 1960s

Catholic Hipster Handbook

New from Ave Maria Press comes the Catholic Hipster Handbook. According to the publisher's blurb, the book is about "yearning to learn more about the faith by seeking out 'Catholic cool'—overlooked saints, forgotten prayers and feast days, and traditional practices long set aside by mainstream believers."

The book sounds interesting. But it reminded me that four years ago I posted about a Catholic ad campaign to promote Jesus as "the original hipster."

So I detect a weird recurring theme: catholics trying to rebrand themselves as hipsters.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 10, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Religion, Books

Crazy Cafe

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 10, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Entertainment, Restaurants, 1950s

Temporarily Blind

May 1974: Three students at Northeast High School in Philadelphia participated in a medical experiment in which for five days they experienced what it was like to be blind.

I'm guessing this kind of experiment would never be allowed nowadays in a high school.





Source: Temple University digital collections (image one, image two)

Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 09, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: School, Experiments, 1970s

The Bubble Hat

More pix and info here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 09, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Toys, Headgear, 1950s

Statehood for Lake Michigan

Back in 1975, Federal Administrative Judge Edward McCarthy briefly tried to promote the idea of granting statehood to Lake Michigan. He figured that if the lake itself was a state, then all the surrounding states wouldn't be able to exploit its resources as easily. As for the oddness of a lake being a state, he reasoned, why not? "After all," he noted, "it's a piece of real estate on which a body of water rests."

Waukesha Daily Freeman - Mar 10, 1975

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 08, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Geography and Maps, 1970s

Mystery Illustration 59

The purpose?

Answer here.

And after the jump.

More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 08, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Technology, 1910s

Chickens as traffic control

1975: Rather than installing expensive signs or speed bumps, Napa, California experimented with using chickens to slow down motorists on one of its streets — Streblow Drive, bordering Kennedy Park. They simply let 85 chickens roam the park and street at will. Said park superintendent Bob Pelusi, "Only occasionally does an errant driver charge through the flock. In the nine months we've had the chickens on the job, we've lost 12 of them — gone in the line of duty, so to speak."

Tampa Times - Apr 11, 1975

Posted By: Alex - Sat Oct 07, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Highways, Roads, Streets and Traffic, 1970s

A Date With Your Family

No one, even at the time, thought of incest allusions?

Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 07, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Etiquette and Formal Behavior, Family, PSA's, 1950s