Before ASCII Photos


This illustration was created entirely by typewriter by a man with cerebral palsy. More of his amazing works can be found at the link below. The close up details of the illustrations are amazing.

Paul Smith, the man with extraordinary talent was born in Philadelphia on September 21, 1921 with severe cerebral palsy.
“Not only had Paul beaten the odds of a life with spastic cerebral palsy, a disability that impeded his speech & mobility but also taught himself to become a master artist as well as a terrific chess player even after being devoid of a formal education as a child.
“When typing, Paul used his left hand to steady his right one. Since he couldn’t press two keys at the same time, he almost always locked the shift key down and made his pictures using the symbols at the top of the number keys. In other words, his pictures were based on these characters … @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ .

Photo and commentary (in italics) from Crooked Brains, via Anita’s Picks.

[Update: Additional images from here. The links above are defunct, but here’s another background story. Paul ]

Saturday Matinee: from “Hellzapoppin” 1941

Forget break dancing, krumping, planking, advanced tublication and line dancing. Here’s the Lindy Hop, and it’s completely nuts (at least the way the Slim and Slam All-Stars featuring Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers did it).

Link found at Miss C Recommends.
She’ll always tell you where to go.

Hermann Reiche’s Contribution to the World

https://web.archive.org/web/20120228094657/https://tackyraccoons.com/2007/09/20/hermann-reiches-contribution-to-the-world/

Saturday Matinee: Karma Ghost

https://web.archive.org/web/20130426150104/https://tackyraccoons.com/2007/09/15/saturday-matinee-karma-ghost/

Otis Did Not Invent the Elevator

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Otis was a recurring character on the Andy Griffith Show. Otis did not invent the elevator. He invented an automatic braking system so that people wouldn’t fall to their deaths if a pulley or cable broke. His invention allowed the construction of modern day high-rise structures.

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Aunt Bea invented the elevator, a shoe insert that allowed her to scold Opie without standing on a chair.

This is a true story (as far as you know).

[Photos from here and here.]

Cubism Carbism

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Paris, France (Strutts News Services) – French automaker Citroën unveiled its latest line of economy vehicles on Thursday, named the “Picasso Series.”

Famous for providing inexpensive reliable transportation for France’s large peasant population following WWII, they have now moved forward into the Cubist Design movement of the 1920’s as they unveiled the latest in a successful line of popular automobiles.

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Chief Industrial Design Engineer Evi Poignée-Bouton de Porte (photo above ca.1994) remarked, “The Picasso design, it is timeless. It shall continue to inspire all well into the Winter.”

[Both photos via No Puedo Creer, an excellent site. In English, it translates to “I Can’t Believe It!” ]

Beware of the TV Police

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You can’t hide them from us because we know you have them. You can’t keep them turned off forever. Resistance is futile.

[Photo source unknown.]

Nuclear Retractable Reciprocating Directional Pop-Up Sprinkler Head With State of the Art Fully Adjustable Hose Clamps Passes Tests !

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No other explanation necessary, and they should be hitting the market soon. You won’t find this in the MainStreamMedia.

(Photo link lost due to global warming. We’ll repost & credit the source when we find it. Honest.)

UPDATE:  Here be the source.

Do the Camel Walk

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James Brown, aka Butane James, Mr. PleasePleasePlease, Mr. Dynamite, The Hardest Working Man In Show Business, Soul Brother No. 1 & The Godfather of Soul shows you how to do the dances you heard about, but rarely saw (at least not as good as JB could do ’em), and all within a minute and 39 seconds:

1.The Crab Dance

2.The Boogaloo

3.The Funky Chicken

4.The James Brown

5.The Mash Potato

6.The Camel Walk

7.The Robot

8. The Soul Train

I’m not sure about the name of the first dance, since it’s in  JamesSpeak. Video link jumped out at me and made me get up and get on down, from Arbroath.

The Zen of Nancy

Ernie Bushmiller’s “Nancy” was one of the most innocuous yet ubiquitous comic strips ever. It was never funny or clever, it was just odd, and it ran in hundreds of papers for decades. There are many Nancy afficionados/analysts out there, just google ’em. One of the best taps into the zen of the strip, with a game called, “Five Card Nancy,” and it’s not funny either.

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Although Nancy didn’t have a mom or a dad in the strip, her Aunt Fritzi took care of her. Fritzi was a babe, and better looking than Blondie. Honest.

Nancy’s best friend Sluggo was odd in his own zen-like way:

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There are so many pointless, humorless comic strips around today that try to be funny. At least Bushmiller’s “Nancy” was deliberately pointless and rarely humorous, but it was drafted in a tight recognizable style.

Sources: Nancy panel clipped from the Sunday funnies years ago; Aunt Fritzi from here; Sluggo panels from here and here.