Happy New Year’s Day 2023!

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 01, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Dinners, Banquets, Parties, Tributes, Roasts and Other Celebrations, Holidays, 1960s

Mississippi’s Queen of the Forest

I believe the title of this post alone would make the basis of an excellent fantasy franchise. Netflix, Apple+ or Amazon Prime--you know where to find me!

Senator John C. Stennis poses with Miss Katherine Alexander of Booneville, Mississippi and Governor of Miss. J. P. Coleman at the State Queen of the Forest Pageant in 1956. Left to Right: Senator Stennis, Miss Katherine Alexander, and Governor J. P. Coleman.

1959 Press Photo Dixie Shadburn, "Queen of the Forest" for Southeast Mississippi

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 31, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Agriculture, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Regionalism, 1950s, 1960s

Dawn in a Duckblind

Listen in the comfort of home, and avoid the cold and wet.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 27, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Hunting, Trapping and Other Wilderness Activities, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, 1960s

A Jazz Lexicon

Pepper your speech with all these forgotten slang terms, and you will acquire an air of coolness and mystery.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 21, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Music, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s, Slang

The woman who sued God and won

On Aug 17, 1960, Betty Penrose's house in Phoenix was hit by lightning. Nine years later she sued God for damages — and won. Kinda. Sorta. Technically, what she won was the right to summon God to a trial which (assuming God would be a no-show) would have resulted in a default judgement against the deity.

Sydney Morning Herald - May 15, 1969

Some additional context is necessary to understand Penrose's case.

Over in Sebastapol, California, singer Lou Gottlieb had been fighting the county government's attempt to shut down the hippie commune he had started on his Morning Star Ranch. As a legal maneuver to avoid paying the county's fines, Gottlieb deeded his land to God. Then he declared that the county could try collecting the fines from God.

This caused Phoenix attorney Russell Tansie, who was Penrose's employer, to realize that if God now legally owned property (the Morning Star Ranch), then God could be sued for damages. And that's how Penrose's suit emerged.

Indianapolis Star - May 14, 1969

However, I don't think Penrose's case ever made it to trial because, back in California, a judge had ruled that God, being neither a "natural or artificial person," could not legally own Gottlieb's ranch. So Gottlieb was still the owner and had to pay the fines.

And if God didn't own the ranch, then Penrose's case became moot.

But if Penrose's case had proceeded, it was possible God wouldn't have been a no-show. San Quentin prisoner Paul Yerkes Bechtel claimed to be God. So he might have appeared in court. And Joseph Njue of Kenya had also offered to defend God.

Santa Rosa Press Democrat - June 12, 1969

Arizona Republic - May 22, 1969

Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 20, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Religion, Lawsuits, 1960s

The North Dakota Zap-In, 1969

May 1969: Responding to a suggestion in the North Dakota State University paper that students "Zip to Zap" to stage a "Zap-In" in Zap, North Dakota (population: 300), 3000 young people descended on the town. The Zap-In soon descended into chaos, prompting the mayor to summon the National Guard to remove the students.

According to wikipedia, the event was "the only official riot in the history of North Dakota that was put down by the National Guard."

More info: Minot Daily News

Bismarck Tribune - May 10, 1969

Bismarck Tribune - Aug 7, 1969

Students gather around the bonfire built in the middle of Zap's Main Street
source: North Dakota Digital Horizons

The National Guard in Zap
source: North Dakota Historical Society

Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 17, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Dinners, Banquets, Parties, Tributes, Roasts and Other Celebrations, Riots, Protests and Civil Disobedience, 1960s

“The Mouse That Roared” Unsold Television Pilot

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 14, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Movies, Television, Unlikely, Improbable and Counterfactual Phenomena, 1960s

Follies of the Madmen #549

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 13, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Family, Newspapers, Restaurants, Advertising, Comics, Junk Food, 1960s

foew&ombwhnw

foew&ombwhnw, by Dick Higgins, was published in 1969 by Something Else Press. The title was an acronym for "freaked-out electronic wizards & other marvellous bartenders who have no wings."

The design of the book was unusual. It was made to look like a prayer book, with black cover and thin pages. Inside, the text was divided into four columns. To read the book in order you had to first read all the left-hand columns, then all the second-to-left columns, etc.

The book itself was a collection of essays, plays, and poems. Or, as Higgins described it, "a grammar of the mind and a phenomenology of love and a science of the arts as seen by a stalker of the wild mushroom."

Copies of it generally go for over $100, for anyone interested in adding it to their collection of weird books.

More info: DickHiggins.org

source: printedmatter.org

Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 10, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Literature, Books, 1960s

The Mighty Tiny Phonograph

Real record players and real 45's were so prevalent and inexpensive, why would anyone invest in this?

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 10, 2022 - Comments (4)
Category: Toys, 1960s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults