A Britannica history of the videophone.
AT&T gave it a go in 1992 with the VideoPhone 2500 — Just $1,499 or $30/day!
Continue reading“Show me your bubbies!”
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Tag Archives: advertising
He sees you when you’re smoking…
“Wait… That’s not what we meant…”
What’s the first thing I thought of when I saw this ad?
“Hey, smoke up, Johnny!”
The Imperial March starts playing…
Hiram Walker, “benevolent despot“, was into millin’ and distillin’.
What’s the difference between whiskey and whisky? Besides the “e”, that is.
Continue readingLet’s get Necco with Santa!
Necco Wafers refuse to die.
“Everyone’s least favorite Halloween candy has been making us miserable since 1847.”
Continue readingInsist on the hole.
1919 Life Savers magazine ad found as the inside front cover of a Life magazine.
Did you know Wint-O-Green Life Savers spark in the dark? Here’s why.
You never know when you’ll suddenly have to know a lot more about Life Savers. Mental Floss has you covered.
Continue readingInsidious Diseases and Hidden Decay
Would you trust your tree with this man?
Bone shards:
I didn’t realize that tree surgeons were a thing until I read a bit about the profession in a Straight Dope column about Groucho Marx by Cecil Adams. Yes, you should read the entire column.
Way back in the day, Groucho Marx hosted a radio/TV quiz show called “You Bet Your Life. During one show when he was interviewing a tree surgeon, he asked, “Have you ever fallen out of any of your patients?”
Read one heck of an obituary for Groucho here.
And now you know about tree surgeons too.
Continue readingThree words: Giant Riding Saw
Bone shards:
So would this thing actually work as advertised, or was it one of those early Caveat Emptor / Buyer Beware moments?
Wanna see the world’s largest saw? Yes, yes you do.
Wanna hear Ave Maria played on a musical saw? Yes, yes you do.
Why buy a giant riding saw when you can just hire one of these guys?
One of these contraptions still exists! Sadly, they don’t show it in action.
Lastly, and not for the squeamish, a history of the punishment known as Death by Sawing.
Continue reading“Aveu!” “Gesundheit.”
Is he about to push her over the railing?
Or maybe he’s a chiropractor about to make an adjustment.
Bone shards:
“Aveu” is French for “confession”, so “Aveu Confession du désir” means “confession confession of desire”.
“It is a feminine floral, created in 1946. Just at the end of the war, women were looking for beauty, flowers, things that would cheer them up after years of hardship, and Aveu was launched for this purpose.”
I have been unsuccessful in tracking down information on the assumed artist, Cydney. If you know anything, please hook me up!
The sophisticated name for a railing is balustrade. The vertical thingies on a balustrade are balusters. Now aren’t you fancy!?
Check out that sweet ampersand.
I was hoping there’d be a fancy name for those fingerless long/arm/sleeve gloves. Alas. “Gants à manches sans doigts” is a bit of a mouthful.
A 50ml flacon of this vintage perfume could set you back over $300.
A flacon is a bottle.
A falcon is a bird.
Continue readingmost provocative
Bone shards:
“What the hell am I smelling and why is it so wonderful? …Whatever the notes are, they’ve converged to create a sexual flower, one that is at its peak of fragrance, like a meadow in full bloom on the hottest spring day, visited by the horniest, healthiest bees.” — from a My Sin review
Lanvin’s My Sin was formulated by a mysterious Russian perfumer named Madame Zed.
What is dusting powder (one of the variations listed at the bottom of the ad)?
Black cats are awesome. You should adopt one from a shelter.
Continue readingSealed with a kiss and probably a paper cut.
When was the last time you write a real letter, you cold and heartless monster?
Bone shards:
This company was founded in 1893 to manufacture social stationery. Social stationery. The first social media?
Feel like writing somebody a real letter? Etsy and eBay have some sellers with vintage Eaton stationery.
I know you can’t wait to read about the history of paper.
You wanna go old-old school? I got ya — the history of papyrus.
Remember Cursive?
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