French April Fool’s Day Vintage Postcards

“Back in the old days in France (up until 1564), the new year was celebrated on April first, based on the Julian calendar. That was before King Charles IX came along and decided that everybody should be following the Gregorian calendar, which starts the new year on the first day of January.

“Not everyone welcomed this change, or so the story goes, and some people continued to celebrate April 1 as the first day of the year. Allegedly, those people were mocked and referred to as April fools. Whatever the case, it became a tradition to do things such as pasting a fish on unsuspecting people’s backs on April 1, and calling them a Poisson d’Avril or an April Fish. The symbol of the fish may also have been connected with Jesus Christ.”

[These undated postcards were found in this fine collection. There is a small envelope attached to one of the fish, meaning unknown. The caption, along with more vintage French April Fish postcards, found here.]

Your Own Public Idaho Hot Links

Shiny Idaho Postcards.


Doggie Duty [language warning].

The Laughing Policeman (Charles Penrose,1922).

This kind of crap should disgust you. More on the story here, and this is a great response.


Meanwhile in Hong Kong…

She thought she was going to win.

From the This Kinda Creeps Me Out Department:
Never heard the term “spatchcocking” before. (It’s a gerund or present participle.)


Forget “Global Warming.” Forget “Climate Change.” Get ready for “Global Meltdown” and “Climate Collapse.” We’re dooooomed.

I rolled my eyes when I read the original story, but this commentary is funny. [NSFW, NSFK]


From the This Is Very Cool Department BUT:

During the U.S. campaign against al Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan, the U.S. government offered hefty bounties for al Qaida, Taliban, and other insurgent leaders. These bounties were highly publicized although rarely collected.

U.S. Central Command decided to toy with the terrorist commanders: Military and intelligence analysts drew up a list of high-value targets, followed by a public announcement that the bounty on a particular terrorist leader had been slashed  Word was whispered in the local markets that the man wasn’t worth the higher reward because he had been injured or been deemed incompetent.

According to Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker of The New York Times, the “less-valuable leader” then wanted “to prove he was still important and worthy of the higher bounty. Even senior members of al Qaida’s global network had been suckered by the ruse and were picked up after they made themselves visible not long after the bounty on their heads was reduced.”

Norman Polmar, “To Understand Russian Submarines, Think Outside The Box” USNI Proceedings, October 2019. http://www.usni.org

So why did the NYT expose a military PsyOps tactic, how did they find out about it, and why did USNI decide to echo it?


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.
(The one from 2009 had some funny in the comments.)


Title above is a reference to this (as if you didn’t know).

Headless Templates

Yep, that’s a 1930s precursor to photoshop. More info here.

Advertisement Postcard For A Convalescent Home

Let's All Sit Together

All against the wall.

Nothing funny about this.
Take care of your elders and NEVER abandon them. They took care of you, and now it’s your turn to return the favor.

Never forget what they did for you.

[Found here, via here.]