January 2025
January 21, 2025
The phone company wants installers like Alana MacFarlane
In the early 1970s, AT&T was faced with bad publicity. During congressional hearings, it had been revealed that although the phone company was the largest employer of women in the country, almost all of those women were employed as low-paid telephone operators. There were almost no women in higher paying jobs, such as in repair or installation. AT&T responded to the criticism with the two ads below.
Ms magazine - July 1972
Sports Illustrated - June 12, 1972
Was Alana MacFarlane a real person? Absolutely. Even before the magazine ads appeared, AT&T had been making sure to let the media know that it had hired a female installer. The media responded with nudge-nudge wink-wink headlines:
Long Beach Independent - Dec 16, 1971
Torrance Daily Breeze - Apr 7, 1972
But the national spotlight AT&T had placed on MacFarlane proved uncomfortable for her. Within six months she had requested to be transferred to a desk job, ending her brief career as an installer.
Honolulu Star-Advertiser - Sep 14, 1972
A one-page blogspot blog, "Alana Macfarlane's story," created in 2010, gives some info about what subsequently became of her. She left AT&T, joined the Air Force for a while, and eventually became an engineer. It reveals that she was paid all of one dollar by AT&T for the ad she featured in.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 21, 2025 -
Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Gender, Women, Telephones, 1970s
View Suspended II
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 21, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Anatomy, Dissection, Interior Structures, Cars
January 20, 2025
Haggis Wildlife Foundation
An organization "committed to documenting and preserving Scotland's elusive wild haggis animal." More info: Haggis Wildlife Foundation
Once widespread across the Scottish landscape, the haggis has retreated into these secluded sanctuaries, finding refuge among storm-beaten coastlines and mystical stone circles that dot the rugged terrain.
Wild haggis are most frequent during the liminal hours of dawn and dusk.
These times, known as the thresholds between day and night, are when the veil between the natural world and the mystical realms grows perceptibly thinner.
It is during these quiet hours that the haggis ventures out, drawn by the dim light and the cover of lingering shadows.
Traditional lore advises seekers to explore areas where moonlight meets mountain shadow—a poetic way of guiding haggis enthusiasts to the slopes and valleys that catch the earliest and last light of the sun. These areas often provide the perfect combination of visibility and concealment, crucial for observing the haggis without startling it.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 20, 2025 -
Comments (6)
Category: Animals, Cryptozoology
Miss Giftware of 1952
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 20, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Gifts, Presents, Tributes, and Other Honoraria, 1950s
January 19, 2025
The Minges Method of Growing Tall
In the first decade of the 20th century, K. Leo Minges heavily advertised his claim that he had discovered a technique to make anyone grow tall. He declared himself to be "to short men and women what the great wizard, Edison, is to electricity."His patent, below, reveals a contraption that allowed a person to stretch themselves by pulling their head up towards the ceiling while keeping their feet anchored to the floor.
More info: Kook Science Wiki; Patent No. 762,832
Boston Globe - Jan 10, 1904
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 19, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Patents, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1900s
Hot Stuff
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 19, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, Destruction, Firefighting, Arson, Wildfires, Infernos and Other Conflagrations, Cartoons, 1970s
January 18, 2025
Dog Portholes
Cutting a dog porthole in the trunk of your car seemed to be a minor fad in the '60s and '70s.
Google translation: "A special dog kennel... is what this Cologne driver has come up with. He has installed two 'portholes' in the trunk lid, from which the two four-legged friends can look out over the landscape. As you can see, there is also room for luggage on the roof. If the family car is too cramped for a holiday trip, you just have to come up with something."
Source: classicdigest.com
Source: classicdigest.com
Vancouver Columbian - Dec 30, 1974
Greenville News - Dec 13, 1963
Toronto Star - June 4, 1970
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 18, 2025 -
Comments (1)
Category: Dogs, Cars
Turtle Racing Track
With many kooky patents, the drawing provides a lot of visual humor. In this case, not so much. That task falls to the text.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 18, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Inventions, Chindogu, Patents, 1950s
January 17, 2025
Malicious Enticement
Nov 1971: The mayor of Evansdale, Iowa left his wife to be with a city clerk. This prompted the mayor's wife to sue the clerk for "maliciously enticing" him away from his wife. The husband of the clerk simultaneously sued the mayor on the same grounds. Therefore the mayor and the clerk were potentially guilty of maliciously enticing each other.I hadn't been aware of 'malicious enticement' as a legal category. A search for the term mostly turns up uses in the business world, where a business could be held liable for maliciously enticing employees away from another business.
The Hollywood ad men missed an opportunity by not crowning a young woman 'Miss Maliciously Enticing'.
Davenport Quad-City Times - Nov 5, 1971
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 17, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Lawsuits, Divorce, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #614
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 17, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Food, Robots, Television, Advertising, Australia
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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 books such as Elephants on Acid. 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. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
