Category:
Utilities

Back on Gas

Mrs. Edith Slack waited twenty years to ask the Gas Board to reconnect her gas cooker which its workers had accidentally left disconnected. She didn't ask sooner because her husband "didn't like making a fuss."

As Pink Floyd said, "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way."

London Sunday Mirror- July 5, 1959

Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 14, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Utilities, United Kingdom

Art Is Not Always Found In A Museum

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So often here on WU we see "art' displayed in museums or galleries that is anything but artistic. Well, here is some beautifully done, intricate artwork found just lying in the streets of Japan. Manhole covers.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 10, 2015 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Government, Utilities

Get to Know A Water Industry Specialist

Get to know a Water Industry Specialist from Norm Friesen on Vimeo.



I did not think it was possible, but I have found an industrial video to rival in boredom the famed "Timber Bridge Inspection."

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 18, 2011 - Comments (2)
Category: Authorities and Experts, Boredom, Utilities

Expensive electricity in Georgia

You thought your electricity bill was high, but a Georgia woman named Scarlett Hall was billed for a billion. With a B. As listed below, she does get a fifty million dollar early payment discount.

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Here's the link to the story. It sounds like the bill was actually delivered, but quickly adjusted to $287.

http://www.popfi.com/2010/10/19/woman-gets-billion-dollar-electric-bill/

Last one out turn off the lights.

Posted By: gdanea - Thu Oct 21, 2010 - Comments (5)
Category: Utilities

Follies of the Mad Men #88





Promoting electricity consumption through the tale of a jailbait girl and a "book gook."

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 20, 2010 - Comments (5)
Category: Business, Advertising, Utilities, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Sexuality, Teenagers, 1950s

Robo-mower!

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[From Look magazine for August 19, 1958. An ad from "America's Independent Electric Light and Power Companies."]

"Go, Robo-mower, and bring me the shapely form of my next-door neighbor's sunbathing wife!"

Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 21, 2009 - Comments (9)
Category: Business, Advertising, Utilities, Landscaping, 1950s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows

Follies of the Mad Men #52

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[From Life magazine for March 27 1944. Two scans, top and bottom.]

Yes, natural resources will never run out, power will be "too cheap to meter," the utilities love you, and winged cherubs will attend milady's bath.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 17, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Utilities, Domestic, 1940s, Natural Resources





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Who We Are
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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