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Salvador Dali Bloopers

*warning – artistic nudity in links* In the 1940s, Salvador Dali and Philippe Halsman teamed up and produced a number of surrealistic works of photographic art — some are iconic, like In Voluptas Mors and Dali Atomicus, but the pair produced many different photos during their collaboration. Others, like this one (I was unable to […]

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Forgotten Negro Books, Remembered Online

This advertisement appeared in the November 1968 issue of School Library Journal; I’d wager that “forgot” is in shock quotes because they weren’t truly forgotten (Sojourner Truth, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, etc), but for the most part the books in this collection were somewhat obscure, given the subject matter and the educational system at the time. […]

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San Francisco, via Gray Line

San Francisco still has Gray Line offering bus tours of their beautiful city, all these years later. The map above is from 1953, from a pamphlet called “Really See San Francisco.” I’m just including the map here, but the rest may follow someday. Nearly 60 years ago, here’s what the attractions via a bus tour […]

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The Red River Mall

I remember the “mall” from my youth, but it barely registers that it ever actually had a name. The Red River Mall was a misguided attempt to revitalize Fargo’s downtown, which (whether directly or indirectly) led to downtown Fargo’s near-collapse in the late 80s and early 90s, and forcing the renewal plans that threaten to […]

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Horsing Around in the 1930s

This image was poorly exposed and blurry; I had to squeek out as much as I could using Photoshop — I’ll bet the young lady being tortured in this photo was happy to see that this photo didn’t turn out originally…but she had no idea that 70 years later somebody on a computerized internet would […]

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Iron Horse Tour of the Railroad Club of Chicago, 1964

On July 19, 1964, a group of railroad aficionados piled aboard a 7900 series lounge car belonging to the Chicago and North Western Railway, en route to the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Railroad Club of Chicago sponsored this ‘lounge car party,’ bringing along friends from Milwaukee along the way, and providing […]

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The Invisible Jet Fighter

No, we’re not talking about stealth fighters — Grumman’s invisible jet fighter was an example of a very early flight simulator. Using a Reeves analog computer, Grumman compiled test data using models and simulations to program the computer and ‘flight-test’ imaginary aircraft’s data against actual flight information. Analog simulators had been around for about a […]

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Maggie Magner’s Get Out Of Jail Free Card

Oh, the title of this post is definitely an exaggeration: Catholicism has no ‘get out of jail free’ card, but the Plenary Indulgence is about as close as you can get. There’s two kinds of indulgences: partial and plenary. A partial indulgence isn’t much more than you get for going to confession regularly — it […]

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Fallout Protection for Homes With Basements

That swanky snack bar isn’t a weekend project from Handy Andy — it’s secret is that the instant the Emergency Broadcast System begins to pierce the air, the snack bar converts into a fallout shelter. The booklet “Fallout Protection for Homes with Basements” — available in online and hard-copy formats, was produced by Civil Defense […]

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In The Bath: November 1954

I know I’ve been heavy on the analysis lately, so in today’s post I have nothing to say about the sink; I can’t tell you about the toy the baby is playing with; I don’t know where the newspaper is from, or what its articles are about; I have nothing to say about asparagus ferns […]