Wearable Swiss Army Knife

Designed by Lulu Yang of University of the Arts London.

Image source: Instagram

Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 22, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Fashion

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 22, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Death | Eighteenth Century | Love & Romance

Anti-Thumb-Sucking Glove

This doesn't look safe.

Patent No. 2,035,210 granted to Elizar Zinner of Germany.

Popular Science - May 1938

Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 21, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Babies | Patents | Clothing | 1930s

Christmas Blues

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 21, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Holidays | Music | 1960s

The National Bureau of Standards measures women

A great deal of effort has gone into trying to come up with standard clothing sizes for women. Organizations such as the National Bureau of Standards have, over the years, measured tens thousands of women.

However, precise standards have proved elusive. Instead, according to Wikipedia, clothes makers "follow the more loosely defined standards known as U.S. catalog sizes." And catalog sizes "may vary even among different styles of the same type of garment."

Cincinnati Enquirer - Jan 17, 1971

Hartford Courant - Jan 31, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 20, 2024 - Comments (5)
Category: Instruments and Measuring Devices | Clothing | 1970s | Women

Equine Hitchhiker

Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 20, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Accidents | Animals | Death | 1930s | Cars

Giant Virgin Mary

Another oddity from my recent southern Arizona trip:

About 100 miles south of Tucson, in the town of Hereford, a 31-foot-tall statue of the Virgin Mary has been erected on the side of a hill. It's so close to the border that, if you stand in the right place, you can see both the Virgin Mary statue and the border wall in the valley below.

The statue was built by Pat and Jerry Chouinard in the 1990s. It stands alongside a 75-foot-tall Celtic cross. But giant crosses seem less odd than giant Virgin Marys. (Unless the crosses are really giant, see our previous post "The largest cross in the western hemisphere").





How does this giant Virgin Mary compare to other giant Virgin Marys around the world? It's not close to being the tallest. The record goes to the Mother of All Asia statue in the Philippines which stands 322 ft high. The American record (9th tallest in the world) goes to Our Lady of the Rockies (90-feet-tall) in Butte, Montana.

source: gcatholic.org

There's a 33-foot-tall statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Windsor, Ohio. That may be the second-tallest in America. Assuming that Our Lady of Guadalupe is the same as the Virgin Mary. I'm not sure if place-specific Marian apparitions are considered to be equivalent to the original Mary.

That would make the Virgin Mary in Arizona the third-tallest in the United States.

More info: Roadside America

Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 19, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Religion | World Records | Statues and Monuments | Arizona

Fun Gum Toys

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 19, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Toys | Advertising | 1960s

Miss Intelligence

In 1968, 20-year-old Evelyn Jacoby was awarded the title of "Miss Intelligence." Or, more specifically, the "most intelligent German woman." A panel of 25 professors of psychology selected her.

Asbury Park Press - May 16, 1968

Culpeper Star-Exponent - May 10, 1968

Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 18, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | 1960s | Brain

Full Sensory Theater

Only the 1960s would conceive of this. Full patent here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 18, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Inventions | Patents | Movies | Television | 1960s | Eyes and Vision | Head | Smells and Odors