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 This created a problem of how to dispose of the microfiche cards when the info on them was out of date.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 - Comments (1)
Category: Garbage, Trash, Waste and Other Detritus | Government | 1970s

What About Thad?

Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 15, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Family | PSA’s | Religion | Outsiders, Marginals, the Excluded and Low-castes | 1960s

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 - Comments (4)
Category: Art | Books | 1970s

Lorraine O’Grady, RIP

Her Wikipedia page.

In the early 1980s, O'Grady created the persona of Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, who invaded art openings wearing a gown and a cape made of 180 pairs of white gloves,[10] first giving away flowers, then beating herself with a white studded whip, which she often referred to as, "the whip-that-made-the-plantations-move".[10] Whilst doing this she would often shout in protest poems that railed against a segregated art world that excluded black individuals from the world of mainstream art, and which she perceived as not looking beyond a small circle of friends. Her first performance as Mlle Bourgeoise Noire was in 1980 at the Linda Goode Bryant's Just Above Midtown gallery in Tribeca.[11]

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 14, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Art | Avant Garde | Performance Art | Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art | Music | Twentieth Century | Twenty-first Century

Unusual Punishments of the Theodosian Code

In 429 AD the Roman emperor Theodosius II established a commission to write down all the laws of the Roman Empire since 312, covering all the Christian emperors. The resulting work was the Codex Theodosianus (or Theodisian Code).

In his book The Triumph of Christianity, biblical scholar Bart Ehrman lists some of the more unusual punishments included in the codex:

• Imperial bureaucrats who accepted bribes were to have their hands cut off (Theodosian Code l.16.7)
• ineffective guardians of girls who had been seduced were to have molten lead poured down their throats (Theodosian Code 9.24.1)
• tax collectors who treated women tax delinquents rudely were to "be done to death with exquisite tortures"
• anyone who served as an informer was to be strangled and " the tongue of envy cut off from its roots and plucked out" (Theodosian Code 10.10.2)
• slaves who informed on their masters were to be crucified (Theodosian Code 9.5.1.1)
• anyone guilty of parricide "shall not be subjected to the sword or to fire or to any other customary penalty, but he shall be sewed in a leather sack, and, confined within its deadly closeness, he shall share the companionship of serpents" and then thrown into a river or ocean "so that while still alive he may begin to lose the enjoyment of all the elements" (Theodosian Code 9.15.1)

James Joyce was evidently familiar with the Theodosian Code since he referred to the final of these punishments in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chap 3, during the section where the priest is describing the torments of hell to the school boys):

Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 13, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Law | Ancient Times

Photo Display Coat

Exchanging snapshots with friends was once a thing with teens? Or just in this guy's imagination?

Full patent here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 13, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Fads | Fashion | Inventions | Patents

Selling sad produce

In grocery stores, fresh produce such as bananas and tomatoes often goes to waste if it's become a "loose single." Shoppers think it's damaged or imperfect.

German researchers have come up with a way to address this problem: make shoppers think the produce is feeling sad because it hasn't been bought.

This is achieved simply by displaying an anthropomorphized picture of sad produce above the singles.



The produce has to be sad. Happy fruits and vegetables don't motivate shoppers.

Also, making produce sad works better than offering a price discount, because shoppers often assume discounted food must be bad.

More info: Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of 'Single' Imperfect Food

via Book of Joe

Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 12, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Food | Fruit | Bananas | Advertising | Experiments | Psychology

Unlikely Reasons for Murder No. 20

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 12, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Death | 1940s | Facial Hair

The Escalators of Wyoming

Apparently it's "one of Wyoming’s default trivia tidbits" that there are only two escalators in the entire state. I just learned that piece of trivia.

The escalators are both located in the city of Casper inside banks. One is at the main branch of Hilltop National Bank. The other is in the downtown branch of First Interstate Bank.

First Interstate Bank escalator

Hilltop Bank escalator

An article at Cowboy State Daily (source of the above images) delves into some more details about the escalators.

For instance, there used to be a third escalator located in a Cheyenne JCPenney, but it was torn down when JCPenney moved.

Also, the two existing escalators were built in 1958 and 1979. This means that it's now been 45 years since an escalator was installed in Wyoming.

The scarcity of escalators is down to a) a lack of people in the state, and b) a lack of multi-story buildings.

I think Wyoming should make an effort to get rid of the two escalators. Then it could boast of being the only escalator-free state.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 11, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Architecture

I Like Christmas

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 11, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Holidays | Music | Children | 1950s