Twentieth Century
Buckeye Beer
The revitalized company still exists today, but no mention of reinstating their "mascots," Buck and Billy.Read the history here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri May 14, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Human Marvels, Regionalism, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Alcohol
A Wake in Hell’s Kitchen
Posted By: Paul - Sat May 08, 2021 -
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Category: Death, Movies, Twentieth Century, Alcohol
2 A.M. in the Subway
Some daring female leg action here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 06, 2021 -
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Category: Mass Transit, Movies, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Public Indecency, Twentieth Century
Owney, the Taxidermy Post Office Dog
Mail clerks raised money for preserving their mascot and he was taken to the Post Office Department's headquarters in Washington, DC, where he was on placed on display for the public. In 1904 the Department added Owney to their display at the St. Louis, Missouri, World’s Fair. In 1911, the department transferred Owney to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1926, the Institution allowed Owney to travel to the Post Office Department’s exhibit at the Sesquicentennial exhibit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From 1964-1992, he was displayed at the Smithsonian museum now known as the National Museum of American History and in 1993 he moved to the new National Postal Museum, where he remains on display next to a fabricated Railway Post Office train car.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 28, 2021 -
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Category: Travel, Trains and Other Vehicles on Rails, Dogs, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Postal Services
Walt Builds a Family Fallout Shelter
Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 20, 2021 -
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Category: Domestic, Technology, War, Twentieth Century
The Twilight Sleep Association
Rendering a pregnant woman unconscious in the delivery room is pretty much frowned upon nowadays, except for emergencies. But at one point, it was regarded as the newest sophistication of the birthing process.Article from 1915 here.
Modern essay here.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 15, 2021 -
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Category: Babies, Medicine, Twentieth Century
The Mimi Award
The Wikipedia entry for MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED tells us:A long-running feature of Mechanix Illustrated was "Mimi," a shapely young woman dressed in skimpy overalls with blue and white vertical stripes; and, in the early sixties, a matching railroad engineer's cap (later discontinued). She was in a picture holding, standing beside, sitting on, lying on or just in the picture with a new product each month. Each "Mimi" held the job for a year. Their names were never given except for the announcement of a new "Mimi" in the January issue. One Mimi did, however, hold the job for a few years in the sixties. An actress from Southern California, she left to live in Hawaii, and a readers' poll was conducted to choose a replacement from a short list. The readers' choice only lasted a short while, and was replaced by one of the runners-up. "Mimi" was discontinued with the change to Home Mechanix.
Ten more Mimi's after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 09, 2021 -
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Category: Hobbies and DIY, Magazines, Technology, Sex Symbols, Twentieth Century
Max Patkin, Baseball Clown
His Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 26, 2021 -
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Category: Humor, Sports, Twentieth Century
The Aquatennial Queen of the Lakes and/or Ambassador
Before looking at these charming ladies, let us ponder the name of this worthy organization: "Aquatennial." The water/wet years? The most common word with this suffix of course is "centennial," which is derived, so Merriam-Webster tells us, from the Latin "centum" and the English suffix "-ennial," which is basically "annual." The suffix is not "-tennial," because the "t" comes from "centum." So even if "the wet or water years" made sense, it would have to be "Aquaennial," which of course is a hideous-looking neologism.All that aside, this organization, founded in 1940, is still going strong. But you can't call the winners "queens" any longer, just "ambassadors." It's nice they kept the tiaras, though, which are not in evidence among ambassadors at, say, the U.N.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 13, 2021 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Regionalism, Lakes, Ponds, Rivers, Streams, Swamps and Other Bodies of Fresh Water, Twentieth Century, Twenty-first Century
Commercial Telegraph Codes
I was randomly browsing old publications online when I ran across this ad. Thinking about the topic of Communication Codes, I found it hard to believe we had never covered it at WU. But apparently not.
In telecommunication, a commercial code is a code once used to save on cablegram costs.[1]...These codes turned complete phrases into single words (commonly of five letters). These were not always genuine words; for example, codes contained "words" such as BYOXO ("Are you trying to weasel out of our deal?"), LIOUY ("Why do you not answer my question?"), BMULD ("You're a skunk!"), or AYYLU ("Not clearly coded, repeat more clearly.").
Here is a page linking to many digitized volumes.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 02, 2021 -
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Category: Business, Technology, Codes, Cryptography, Puzzles, Riddles, Rebuses and Other Language Alterations, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century
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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 |