The Bag

Plastic bag up in the tree.
Far beyond the reach of me.
Flapping loudly in the wind.
Ripped and torn without a mend.

Who were you in newer days,
Before your rotting branch malaise?
Maybe Walmart. Maybe Sam’s.
Maybe filled with litter sands.

Were you from a dollar store,
Or were you meant for something more?
Whatever it was you held inside,
Your ending’s most undignified. 

“Hurry up and paint the ad! This thing is effin’ heavy!”

Magazine ad for Liquid Veneer found in a May 1917 issue of The Designer.
Magazine ad for Liquid Veneer found in a May 1917 issue of The Designer.

The curious type in the Liquid Veneer is neither italic nor oblique. I’m not sure what you’d call it. Bizarro-oblique? Mirroritalic? Hmm.

Liquid Veneer was a product of the Buffalo Specialty Co.

They also made hacksaws and grinders.

I’m guessing it’s a bad idea to use Liquid Veneer for dental veneers.

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The technology of yesterday, today.

found in a Spiegel Holiday 1988 catalog
found in a Spiegel Holiday 1988 catalog

The Fantastic and Troubled History of the Video Phone

Reach out and see somebody.

Telephony with Pictures

See what you’ve been missing.

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Come for the gimcracks. Stay for the SPUG.

Colgate ad found on the back cover of the January 1915 issue of The Designer magazine
Colgate ad found on the back cover of the January 1915 issue of The Designer magazine

What’s a gimcrack? Pretty much the same thing as a gewgaw, d-uh.

Mr. Smith must’ve been a real tightwad over clothing, as both he and Mrs. Smith wear the same outfits for several days. Hopefully, Colgate made a deodorant back then. (Nowadays, they do make Speed Stick.)

What’s the deal with fainting couches? In related news, a chaise longue is usually screwed up by Americans as a “chaise lounge”.

It looks like SPUG was made up for this ad, but there are other SPUGS that exist today.

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Ahiru

duck

Just a little surprise I found in a box of Japanese magazines that was shipped to me last January from the UK.

All other perfumes pale in comparison.

White Shoulders perfume ad from the December 1946 issue of Art News
White Shoulders perfume ad from the December 1946 issue of Art News

I thought it read “perfume by Bryan” but I guess it’s Evyan, not Bryan. Sorry, Bryan. Now sold under the Elizabeth Arden brand.

White Shoulders was launched in 1945. It was Evyan’s first and only perfume. Evyan’s founder had a great name — by Baron Walter Langer von Langendorff.

Yes, you want to know about the history of opera glasses.

White shoulders may be a symptom of a serious medical condition.

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Big, Juicy Chunks

1979 comic book ad for Blammo Soft’n SugarFree bubble gum
1979 comic book ad for Blammo Soft’n SugarFree bubble gum

How Whammo became Blammo and other bits about the Amurol company.

Would you like a moose to tech you more about bubble gum? Of course you would!

The first bubble gum (1906) was named Blibber-Blubber. This and more gum history here.

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I need to subscribe to This Meeting Could’ve Been an Email magazine.

Successful Meetings and Meetings Today magazines

Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.

Cover of the March 1923 issue of Modern Priscilla magazine
Modern Priscilla magazine cover, March 1923

Sensuous as the beat of the tom-tom

1946 magazine ad for Corday's Frenzy perfume.
1946 magazine ad for Corday’s Frenzy perfume.

What does it smell like? “sultry, light, flippant”

The artist is Vladimir Bobri (Bobritsky). More of his work here.

Corday was named after Charlotte Corday, a female assassin best known for offing this guy…

La Mort de Marat by Jacques-Louis David
La Mort de Marat by Jacques-Louis David

Does anyone else smell… murder?

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