Classic images of POSSIBLE GLUTTONY

Yup, we're heading into the season. The season of eating. American's do it very well. We eat and we eat a lot. Images of food are everywhere now. Images of American's getting bigger only to complain about it in January. Which brings me to a little something that actually has very little to do with this, but it's been driving me nuts for a few years. Can you guess? I doubt it. Nobody is going to see this one coming.

Jane Seymour. Jane Seymour jewelry designer. Now I have nothing against the woman. Saw her in person a very long time ago and she was lovely, but her jewelry.... Each time there is some sort of jewelry buying holiday around the corner Kay's Jeweler hauls out Jane's necklace. She calls it the "open heart collection." Okay, not so sure. Seriously take a look at it next time it's on. Don't just DVR past it. Pause on that necklace and tell me if that isn't the backside silhouette of a naked big bottomed woman? Small top, large bottom. That's all I'm sayin'. If you want to give your significant other a necklace that looks like you're saying "Hey, love your big bottom" okie dokie by me. But don't tell me it's open hearts. It's a rorschach test and I see a big bottomed woman. Which brings me back to where I started...food. 

For your viewing pleasure I give you food. Food in vintage postcards, early 20th century. Yeah, I know, two of them are wild turkeys, but that is still food during the next month. The rest of the year I don't need to worry about my lovely flock outside roaming through the orchard. But for the next month every single time I hear a gunshot I worry they took one of my babes. 

So enjoy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating. I'll be away with family. Eat slow, chew well, swallow, and repeat. Then find a big chair and fall asleep. It's a holiday. That's what we do.

Catch you on the flipside. And keep your hands off my wild turkey!

Oh, and if you start seeing a turkey staring back at you in your spoon you know you've eaten too much or someone forgot to bake the thing at the right temperature. And now, according to "A Christmas Story" you're going to get worms.

GIVE THANKS for Corn Flakes

This is one of my favorite vintage ads in my collection of ephemera. It dates to the September 1910 issue of The Delineator magazine. I think it's stunning. Unfortunately no information is given about the illustrator. I like the small shadow of people out of view that appears on the left. That little shadow adds extra life to the image. And to think Kellogg had only been in business for 4 years and was turning out advertisements like this. It's now a little over 100 years old. Okay, I'll admit that the box of corn flakes looks absurd, but that's okay. I like the idea of it. Who knew they had Costco's back then?

Click on image to see it larger.

ELVES GONE WILD!

As we all get ready to start partying for the next month and a half until the final tolling of the bell on New Years Eve, I think it's time we take a few moments and silently reflect on elves. Yes, ELVES! What do we know about them? Really, nothing. They're the straight men to Santa's one man show. They're the ones left behind Christmas Eve at the melting North Pole. And what exactly do they do that evening? Okay, so probably they're still working that night in case Santa has any screw-ups along the way. But when the jolly one pulls the sleigh into the barn and says "No, really, no more cookies. I'd like a nice California Chablis, a bag of Cheetos, and my slippers" what do the elves do? I'm thinking...they get plastered! Elves Gone Wild! I give you Beech the dancing party fool, and Ham the mixer of all things lethal. Imagine the YouTube videos of the mayhem. I'm guessing the partying goes on for a couple days before Santa tells them all to chill out and get started on next years haul of consumer items. 

Okay, so maybe it's just my imagination run wild, but I often like to think of what elves do in their time off. Maybe it's just me.

As often is the case there's more to this story. These little fellows are actually advertising promotional paper dolls from the late 19th century offered by the Beecham's Pill company. Want to know why they look like this? I think they might have used the product. Do you know what happens when you take a pill made out of soap? Well...you get Elves Gone Wild! but not in the way they'd hoped for.

Beecham's Pills were a laxative first marketed around 1842 in St Helens, Lancashire. They were invented by Thomas Beecham (1820–1907), grandfather of Thomas Beecham (1879-1961).

The pills themselves were a combination of aloe, ginger, and soap, with some other more minor ingredients. They were initially advertised like other patent medicine as a cure-all, but they actually did have a positive effect on the digestive process. This effectiveness made them stand out from other remedies for sale in the mid-nineteenth century.

The popularity of the pills produced a wide range of testimonials that were used in advertising. The poet William Topaz McGonagall wrote a poem advertising the pills, giving his recommendation in verse. Two slogans used in Beecham's advertising were "Worth a guinea a box," and "Beecham's pills make all the difference."

The pills, and their marketing, were the basis for Beecham's Patent Pills, which became Beecham Estates and Pills in 1924, eight years after the death of Sir Joseph Beecham, the son of Thomas Beecham. The pills continued to be made by a succession of Beecham Pills Limited, Beecham Pharmaceuticals Limited, Beecham Health Care, and SmithKline Beecham. The manufacture of the pills was discontinued in 1998. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

And so it goes...so to speak.

LOOKING FOR A WAY TO MAKE EXTRA CASH? At home businesses!

Tough times. Really tough times. I know of what I speak. Over the years I've watched more and more of my work being outsourced to foreign countries. Irritating. But, what can you do? It's the way it is. 

The last time I had an in-house job was 1975. I've been a freelancer since October of '75. I'm not really office material. I work better when I'm on my own. I need to be able to get up and walk around a lot so I can think. Couldn't do that in a cubicle. I'd look like a yo-yo bouncing up and down over the little cubicle walls. And the screaming at my computer...well, that just wouldn't sit well in an office environment. 

So, are you thinking of starting your own business? Thinking of the joys of working from home in your pajamas? Here are a few possibilities courtesy of the September 1931 Comfort. Do you think this is how Krispy Kream started?

Seriously, read the copy for a good laugh. In the first ad I like the line that states: 

"Write quick for amazing, big outfit FREE."

What if you were petite? Did you still have to wear the "big outfit" in order to make sales? Did your neighbors look at you like you were nuts as you told them the allure of Paris fashions all the while grabbing at your dress falling off your shoulders?

Or how about Donuto:

"Simply add water and fry."

Was there fine print warning the users to not get the water near the hot oil? You know, sort of like "close cover before striking?" Or did people have enough sense back then to not need fine print? I don't know. 

Or "New Soles" which states:

"No nails or tools necessary. Just an old knife."

Wouldn't knife be considered a tool? Am I getting too picky? Is this why we now need fine print? I don't know. It could be people like me that caused the invention of the fine print. I'm willing to bear that burden.




Okay, I just read the fine print. Donuto...

"Ford Tudor sedan offered FREE to producers as extra bonus."

Seriously, sell some donuts, get a car. Who can beat that offer? Maybe GM should think of working out something with Donuto.

Gotta love ephemera!

Married or unmarried...WHO SHOULD GET THE JOB?

A woman's place is in the home. Them's be fightin' words if you read this column from the September 1931 issue of Comfort. Yes, Comfort, the same magazine that gave us "A Lonesome Mountaineer". The following is from a monthly column entitled "The Comfort Sister's Corner" which was "Conducted by Mrs. Wheeler Wilkinson." I'm not kidding. 

Apparently in an earlier issue a woman from Nebraska wrote a letter stating that married women shouldn't work outside the home. This got the bees a buzzin' across the country. Enjoy! Talk amongst yourselves about our topic for today.

The reason I posted this is because of the photo I posted at my vernacular photography site. Soon as I saw that photo I remembered this column. Geez, the stuff I store in my brain.