1970s
Recipe for boiled microfiche
Back in the pre-desktop computer era, the Social Security Administration stored info on microfiche cards. This created a problem of how to dispose of the microfiche cards when the info on them was out of date. The shredders in the SSA district offices weren't up to the task of shredding them.The solution: district offices were instructed to purchase crockpots and boil the old microfiche cards for 75 to 105 minutes.
In my college/grad school days, I spent many hours sitting at michrofiche readers. Thanks to digitization, I think that's an experience students today won't have to endure.
Omaha World Herald - May 16, 1979
Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 15, 2024 -
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Category: Garbage, Trash, Waste and Other Detritus, Government, 1970s
Double Bind
Published in 1978 by the artist Richard Olson, Double Bind consists of only six pages, but good luck reading those pages because, as the title implies, the book is bound on both ends.I could see this being an interesting addition to a library of odd books, but I don't know how many copies Olson created. I imagine not that many. One of them went up for auction in 2017 with a list price of $200-$300, but remained unsold.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 14, 2024 -
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Category: Art, Books, 1970s
Jim’s Guide to San Francisco—an update
Back in June we posted about an oddball guide to San Francisco called Jim's Guide to San Francisco in which artist Jim Finnegan posed outside SF businesses named Jim.Finnegan published this back in 1977.
Joshua Bote, a writer for Gazetteer SF, recently came across our post, and it inspired him to seek out more info about Jim's Guide. He contacted me, but I wasn't much help. I told him I came across a reference to it in an old art journal named Umbrella. But then he was able to track down Finnegan himself, who's now 80 years old, living in the town of Woodacre in Marin County.
Bote reports:
Check out the whole article.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 07, 2024 -
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Category: Books, Tourists and Tourism, 1970s
Weebles Tub Sub
Was there ever a line of toys more inexplicably popular than Weebles?
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 07, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Toys, Advertising, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #613
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 06, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Advertising, Candy, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #612
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 25, 2024 -
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Category: Advertising, 1970s, Cars
Take Me, I’m Yours
In 1971 National Airlines launched its "Fly Me" advertising campaign (see previous post). It featured stewardesses identifying themselves by their first names and declaring "Fly Me." The New York Times notes that this campaign won it "enormous animosity from many feminist organizations."In 1976 National ended the "Fly Me" campaign and replaced it with the "Take me, I'm yours" campaign. From a feminist perspective, not a whole lot better.
The "Take me, I'm yours" campaign lasted only a year before National switched its tag line to "Watch Us Shine."
Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 13, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, Advertising, Air Travel and Airlines, 1970s
Sharing too much during a job interview
Asheville Citizen Times - July 16, 1975
Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 10, 2024 -
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Category: Police and Other Law Enforcement, Stupid Criminals, 1970s
A kiss goodbye
Staten Island Advance - Jun 7, 1975
Posted By: Alex - Fri Nov 08, 2024 -
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Category: Suicide, 1970s
Nati-anal Airlines
Joshua Alper's 1978 book, The Documentary Record of an Infringement, documents his "pseudovandalist" alteration of a damaged billboard to make it read "anal Airlines."Pre-alteration and damage, the billboard was for National Airlines, which is now defunct.
The book is quite rare, but you can get a copy for $100.
I haven't been able to find a picture of the billboard post-alteration, and I'm not going to pay the money for his book.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 07, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Books, Air Travel and Airlines, 1970s, Billboards
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| 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. Contact Us |