Eddie Harris:  That Is Why You’re Overweight

Although the tune is fine, the lyrics are the thing here, and they start around 2:20.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 25, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Addictions, Food, Music, 1980s

Bathrooms walls as teaching tool

1980: At the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Alan Grogono reported on the results of an experiment to determine the efficacy of bathrooms walls as a teaching tool.

While teaching a class on CPR, he placed educational posters about CPR in the bathroom of one college dormitory, while placing no posters in the bathroom of another. Students housed in the dormitory with the bathroom posters subsequently scored significantly better on the CPR exam than those in the no-poster dormitory. In fact, students in the bathroom-poster dormitory who hadn't even taken the class scored as well as students in the no-poster dorm who had taken the class.

Grogono concluded that bathroom posters could be a useful supplement to CPR training. He also credited his "fascination with restroom communication" to his student days at London Hospital Medical College.

Philadelphia Inquirer - Nov 27, 1980

Chemical & Engineering News - Oct 27, 1980

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 24, 2017 - Comments (8)
Category: Bathrooms, Education, 1980s

Falsified Soviet Maps

Original article here.

Additional essay here.

More wide-ranging essay on Soviet maps here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 17, 2016 - Comments (0)
Category: Confusion, Misunderstanding, and Incomprehension, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Imitations, Forgeries, Rip-offs and Faux, Military, 1980s, Russia

Sighted Stiff, Sank Same

Original article here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 16, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category: Death, Kludges, Hacks and Duct-tape Repairs, Military, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, 1980s

Goat coughs up diamond ring

And the only thing my cat coughs up is hairballs...

The White Plains Journal News - June 9, 1984

There's a few more details about the diamond-coughing goat here.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 01, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Jewelry, 1980s

Compu-Chick

A mid-1980s alternative to Compuserve.



It was actually an interactive exhibit at the I.Q. Zoo, the famous animal training facility and tourist attraction in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Founded in 1955 by Marian and Keller Breland (students of the psychologist B.F. Skinner), it stayed open until 1990.

Apparently you typed in questions, and the chicken would type a response. From the "official online home of the IQ-Zoo":



I'm not sure, but maybe Google's "PigeonRank" technology, which the company revealed on April 1, 2002 to be the secret behind their search results, could have been inspired by Compu-Chick.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Oct 29, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, 1980s

Watered her lawn non-stop

1984 - Richmond, California: After 71-year-old Alice Richie's husband died, she began watering her lawn. And she didn't stop. She kept the sprinklers on 24 hours a day, for over a year. Rain or shine. Using over 20,000 gallons of water a day.

Her yard turned into a swamp, breeding mosquitoes. The runoff poured over onto her neighbor's properties, damaging the foundations of their homes and causing algae to grow on driveways. The city had to put up caution signs on the sidewalk in front of her home.

Richie ignored pleas to turn off the water. When asked why she was watering so much, she replied, "It's none of your goddamn business." People speculated that she believed she was washing away evil spirits.

However, she paid all her utility bills on time, so the water company couldn't simply cut her off. Finally, her neighbors took her to court.

Even in court she wouldn't explain why she watered so much. But the court ordered a flow restrictor put on her waterline, limiting her to 500 gallons a day (which still sounds like a lot for a single person). This finally put an end to the non-stop watering, after a year-and-a-half. A utility spokesman said, "She'll have just enough water to do her laundry, dishes and bathe. But she'll have to make some sacrifices if she decides to water her lawn."

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any photos of Richie's front yard, or of Richie herself. Nor, to my knowledge, was her mania for watering ever explained.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - May 17, 1984

The New London Day - June 10, 1984

Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 21, 2016 - Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, 1980s

Nation’s Ugliest Students

Holy Microaggressions, Batman! Imagine the stink such a stunt would cause today. Which generation of students seems more resilient, well-adjusted and good-natured to you?

Original article here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 27, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Contests, Races and Other Competitions, 1980s, Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia

Inedible Egg Products

Original article here.

Even after reading this article about the big change in export rules for inedible egg products that occured in 1983, I still have no idea what these products are, or what they are used for.

Apparently, the baffling subject is still being thrashed out by the USDA thirty years later.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 17, 2016 - Comments (10)
Category: Food, Eggs, 1980s, Twenty-first Century

Lord Littlebrook, RIP

Obituary here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 14, 2016 - Comments (1)
Category: Entertainment, Human Marvels, Wrestling, 1980s, 1990s