Andy Boy was a major manufacturer of broccoli in the 1960s. Unfortunately one strain was inedible, so Mr. Boy, always the innovator, turned it into one of the most popular hairstyles ever.
Subsequently Andy re-engineered the vegetable and they have a booming business today.
[Disclaimer: This post is satire and is in no way intended to disparage or impugn The Andy Boy Company or its produce. All in fun. Image found here.]
These are reproductions of one of the rarest PEZ candy dispensers. I should know… I had one of the 1968 “Luv” originals, and it’s somewhere in the basement of a house in Ohio. It looks like this:
I don’t remember ever refilling it with the little brick-shaped candies, but I disassembled and reassembled it at least once when I was bored.
[Update: Corrected factual error.]
Armistice Day was celebrated as an end to The Great War in Europe. Subsequently it was called “Veterans Day” in the United States in 1954. In Canada and most of the Commonwealth, it is observed as “Remembrance Day.”
Those decorated envelopes were sent by “Tid” Myers, my great grandfather, to his son, Pvt. Walter Myers, while Walter was stationed in France. I remember Uncle Walter as an almost blind old man whose hobby was amateur (HAM) radio. I was too young to understand his hobby, and didn’t know enough about WWI to ask him what I’d ask him now. Uncle Walter passed on in 1978 and I never knew what he had gone through until decades later.
The following are transcripts of letters sent by Walter Myers to his parents. He was in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in WWI. The Signal Corps used balloons to survey the German trenches and movements, and was a very risky business.
The messages below are as is, without editing.
_________________________________________________
France, August 27, 1918
Dearest Mom and Dad,
Was under fire for the first time recently. No casualties. Believe me you have never heard such an unearthly noise. Everything quiet then all of a sudden “Boom” s-h-h-h sh-sh-sh-sh. The boom is when the shell bursts and the “sh” sounds like the wind whistling through a crack. The “sh” is caused by flying splinters. The damned Dutch can’t hit a barn so we should worry. We have dugouts.
Sorry I can’t tell more. This may be cut out. I don’t think it will though because there is no information. I guess the Dutch remember shooting at us. So this letter wouldn’t give them any “info.”
_________________________________________________
October 25, 1918
On the Front
Dear Mom and Dad:
Well, as per usual. A short ‘un. Have had some excitement lately but I get so darn used to excitement that it takes something more daring each time to satisfy me. We lost another balloon the other day. Burned by a boche airman. God knows but maybe our machine guns didn’t give him “H” but he got away with it. Our observers landed safe in their parachutes.
The Boche shelled us the other night and one shell landed about ten feet from your truly’s tent. Say, boy, you ought to have seen our gang high-tail it for the dugouts. It was in the middle of the night and we all had to get out of bed but you didn’t see anybody in their under clothes for we never take our clothes off. I haven’t had my clothes off for about three weeks and Lord only knows when I got a bath last. There is an old shell hole about ten feet from my tent which is full of water and I am going to take a bath there if I freeze my “arse” off.
You want to know if I “ever” had the cooties. Well, I’ll tell you. I have ’em most of the time. But they aint so worse after you have ’em a while. I “kinda” got used to ’em. We call the Boche, “Jerry.”
_________________________________________________
November 14, 1918
For the first time away from the front since July 5th.
In a camp, behind the lines.
Dear Mom and Dad:
Well, of all the wonderful things that could ever happen. The war is “won.” As the French say, “Fini la Guerre.” Every Frenchman we meet hollers, “Fini la Guerre, Merci! Beaucoup.” It means– the war is over, thank you many times. We are sure some glad bunch. I sure will have a lot of stuff to tell you when I return. And that won’t be long. We are now away from the front for the first time. I just got rid of a bunch of cooties yesterday. I hope that they will be the last, too. They are sure the cause of one hell of a feeling.
Well, this is all for the present. So long and hoping to see you soon.
Soldier Bill
_________________________________________________
[Update: The Philadelphia Intelligencer ran a story about the envelopes today, with more pictures.]
Too much time at the telemarketing terminal today? Not enough time to catch all your favorite programs even though they’re all properly TIVO’d?
Do we have the product for you. SleepNoMore™ is guaranteed to keep you alert and focused until sleep deprivation fatigue sets in… which brings us to an added bonus — no more washing bed sheets.
It’s yet another great innovation from the great minds at Professional Appliances, Inc., a division of Opposable Thumbs Corporation. Not available in stores.
[Found here.]
This guy knows how with his homemade Bleatophone. I bet it sounds really b-a-a-a-a-a-d.
[Found here.]
Some of you may have noticed an improvement in the Tacky Raccoon HQ rec room restrooms recently. Yep, that’s right, the old cracked wooden butt-pinchers have been replaced with Church Seats. We’re going green, and the best part is that Church Seats will stay stunning.
Loni Anderson (Good God, look at that hair!) introduced a tribute to Charles Schulz, creator of Wee Folk, aka Peanuts. Today is the 60th anniversary of its debut. RIP, Sparky.
David Benoit’s version of Vince Guaraldi’s classic “Linus and Lucy.”
Amazing magic trick [found here].
Remember when SNL was funny? Buck Henry was one of the top writers in the early days.
According to one source, “Downchild” was the band that inspired Dan Akroyd to create The Blues Brothers.
BTW, The Competition will be closed at Midnight, Pacific Standard Time, tonight, so get yer last minute entries in.
Have a great weekend, folks.
As drummer for the seminal punk band The Ramones, surviving member Marky Ramone is enhancing his portfolio by marketing Marky Sauce. It’s the loudest, fastest and most awesome pasta sauce you’ll ever see in your lifetime. Gabba freakin’ Hey!
[Video here, Marky’s website here. Tip o’ the tarboosh to WN.]
For fans, here’s a bonus clip from “End of the Century.”
Although the book is sixty years old, Viktor Lowenfeld described the childhood stages of perception, via drawing and painting, and included a section on the blind and deaf. Lowenfeld was very perceptive and astute in using art to measure the mental progress of young ‘uns.
“I Am Eating Candy” is the title of a clay sculpture by an 11 year old blind and deaf girl who attended the Perkins Institution for the Blind in the late 1940s. It’s from a book entitled “Creative and Mental Growth – A Textbook on Art Education,” by Viktor Lowenfeld, Pennsylvania State College, published by The Macmillan Company, New York, 1950. Here’s the full plate:
I’m tempted to scan the entire book into .pdf format… it’s that awesome.
[Found in Strider’s awesome collection of crap.]
Tacky Raccoons 