Kentucky Roast Beef

Here's a neat article about this failed venture by Colonel Sanders.

You won't find the image below at that page.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 21, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Food, Success & Failure, 1960s

Richard Nixon, Cottage Cheese, and Ketchup

Richard Nixon's favorite snack was reportedly cottage cheese topped with ketchup.

A 1960 article in the LA Times treated this as noncontroversial personal information about the then-presidential candidate, noting that he had acquired a taste for this unusual delicacy from his Quaker grandmother.

Los Angeles Times - Mar 14, 1960

However, by the 1970s Nixon's team was downplaying his fondness for this snack. Helen Smith, the first lady's press secretary, dismissed it as overblown rumor.

Casper Star Tribune - June 5, 1973

Similarly, White House chef Henry Haller, in his book The White House Family Cookbook, denied he had ever seen Nixon eat such a concoction: "If the President ever doused his cottage cheese with catsup, I never saw him, and doubt he ever did."

I suspect the truth is that Nixon enjoyed this snack when he was younger, but didn't continue eating it when he was President. Regardless, the combination of cottage cheese and ketchup was definitely associated with Nixon in the public mind, and it inspired one odd work of art.

In 1973, on the eve of Nixon's second inauguration, the sculptor Carl Andre dumped 500 pounds of cottage cheese on the floor of the Max Protetch gallery in Washington, DC. He then topped this with 10 gallons of ketchup. He called the work 'American Decay'. However, it smelled so bad that it all had to be removed the next day.

More info: Interview Magazine

'American Decay'. Image source: bonhams

Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 18, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Art, Food, Politics, 1970s

Gastro Obscura

A new book from the ATLAS OBSCURA folks about weird foods. A perfect Xmas present for any WU-vie!

I understand Jeppson's Malört is discussed therein.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 14, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Regionalism, World, Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust

Long Eggs

Long eggs are either: a) eggs laid by specially bred long chickens; or b) a highly engineered food product created in the 1970s to satisfy the food service industry's desire to have egg slices with a consistent ratio of white and yolk.

You can choose what you want to believe.

source: shemazing.net

The video below shows how long eggs might be engineered. It's in German, but even if you don't speak that it's easy to understand what's going on.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 04, 2021 - Comments (5)
Category: Food, Eggs

Killer Tomatoes

My partner grafts tomatoes for our garden. Must caution against this!

Source: The Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tennessee) 31 Oct 1963, Thu Page 14

Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 16, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Family, Food, Psychedelic, 1960s, Goofs and Screw-ups

Follies of the Madmen #515

Either an eensy-teensy chopping block and cleaver, or a very large can of tuna.



Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 12, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Enlargements, Miniatures, and Other Matters of Scale, Food, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, 1960s

Sour Cream Cookbook Ad

We're sweet on sour cream.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 10, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Advertising, 1950s

What happens when a fly lands on your food

1970 ad for the UK Health Education Council. The text is credited to Charles Saatchi, who was then a young advertising executive (and is now a wealthy art collector).

More info: The Guardian

Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 31, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Insects and Spiders, Advertising, 1970s

Fruit Cake Queen of 1968

No further info available!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 17, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Food, 1960s

Car sold for 1395 bananas

1965: Bernice Wyszynski saw a brand-new Pontiac sedan advertised for "1,395 bananas". So she tried to take the dealer up on that offer. However, the dealer insisted that the car actually cost $1,395. 'Bananas', he said, was a vernacular term for dollars. Wyszynski threatened to sue him for false advertising, and eventually he relented, selling her the car in exchange for 1,395 bananas.

I can buy five bananas at the supermarket for $1. Which means that, in present-day money, Wyszynski got the car for around $280. That's a pretty good deal.

Bernice Wyszynski died in 2003, and the banana incident made it into her obituary:

Long Beach Press-Telegram - May 5, 1965

Arizona Daily Star - May 1, 1965

Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 10, 2021 - Comments (8)
Category: Food, 1960s, Cars, Bananas