Just what you've always wanted - a web trail of a retired over-the-hill bald guy.
There have been many money making schemes through the years but it must have been particularly rough to come up ideas during the depression - or maybe not. Here's an entry from a fellow blogger who found an interesting book on Money-Making Hobbies from 1938. My particular favorite is "Playing the Glamorous Piano Accordion" with "Playing the Lowly Harmonica" a close second.
A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty "Hi-yo, Silver!" The Lone Ranger rides again!
The Lone Ranger radio series inspired a spin-off called the Green Hornet which depicts Reid's grand nephew, Britt Reid, originally played by Al Hodge, who in contemporary times fights crime with a similar secret identity and sidekick, Kato. However, the properties were acquired by different interests and the familial link has been downplayed.
Continuing our exploration of Fawcett publications starting from Cap't Billy's Whiz Bang, a flagship of Fawcett magazines in the 1920s was Modern Mechanics and Inventions. From November 1928 to July 1929 it serialized reprints of three Edgar Rice Burroughs novels: The Moon Maid as "Conquest of the Moon" (Nov 28 to Feb 1929), At the Earth's Core as "Lost Inside the Earth" (Feb to Apr 1929), and Under the Moons of Mars [aka A Princess of Mars] as "Carter of the Red Planet" (Apr to Jul 1929).
A ringneck duck survived being shot and spending two days in a hunter's refrigerator -- and now she's had a close brush with death on a veterinarian's operating table.
Mount Augustus, or Burringurrah as it is known by the local Wadjari Aboriginal people, is one of the world's most spectacular peaks at 2,500 feet above the surrounding western Australian plain and is visible for more than 100 miles.
I am on this account not displeased that the Figure [on the Great Seal] is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.
You know the scene, you're running late, everything is packed and ready to go, one last stop before the airport .. Spot and Puff's Boarding House for Pets. But where's Puff er, Furrpurr? Not under the bed or in the closet. Didn't someone see her heading downstairs?
Hershey's Kisses are so called because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
"If you have it, you don't need it. If you need it, you don't have it. ...."
The Hubble Space Telescope weighs 12 tons (10,896 kilograms), is 43 feet (13.1 meters) long, and cost $2.1 billion to build.
John Logie Baird (of Scotland) gave the world's first public demonstration of a mechanical television apparatus to approximately 40 members of the Royal Institution at his laboratory on Frith Street. These were images of living human faces, not outlines or silhouettes, with complete tonal gradations of light and shade.
As promised in last week's entry, for the next several weeks Pulp Picks will spotlight publications following the lead of Capt Billy's Whiz Bang (CBWB).
On this day, the first television station west of the Mississippi River goes on the air. The station was KTLA-TV in Hollywood. The station began broadcasting at 8:30 p.m. from a converted garage. When the first Emmy Awards were handed out two years later, KTLA swept the awards for its original programming
Down Georgia way, next to Rivermarket Antiques is the home of the largest Lunch Box Museum in the world.
The neon-lighting tube was patented on this day, as U.S. Patent 1,125,476. Frenchman Georges Claude's patent for the purification process included the process of "electrical bombarding," which has been unique to the neon industry.
If you've got a room in your house that never seems to get enough light, CeeLite has the wallpaper for you. The company's Light Emitting Capacitor (LEC) panels are flexible, paper-thin light bulbs that you can hang on a wall, coming in sizes as large as 3 x 6 feet. Just a millimeter thick, the panels sandwich light-emitting phosphors between layers of electrodes. When an AC voltage is applied, the phosphors light up with a warm white glow, consuming less power than a neon or fluorescent bulb. The panel naturally glows evenly, though you can set them up to dim, glow brighter, or blink like crazy when touched.
Eugene Ely was the first pilot to successfully land and take off on a Naval vessel. At 11:59am he completed the first successful Naval trap. After a long pause of silence, the impact of the achievement settled in and wild cheering broke out. The exuberant shouting cascaded from the Pennsylvania, over to the surrounding boats, and all the way to the shore. Ships' whistles streaked and sirens in the city began to blare.
Back in aught-three, 70 folks got together and created a Blog of 365 audio tracks - one for each day of that year. Now, they're at it again for aught-seven. It's cool, it's retro, it's diverse, it's odd. Surf over every day and take at least a quick listen.
Duddingston Curling Society became the first curling club in the world to be formally organised. It had a membership fee of three guineas and attracted Scotland's top curlers. By the beginning of the 19th century the game had become extremely popular in Scotland. The rules of the sport were codified in 1803.
The first adaptation of Superman as a daily newspaper comic strip was launched on this day. The strip ran until May 1966. Siegel and Shuster used the first strips to establish Superman's backstory, adding details such as the planet Krypton and Superman's father, Jor-El, concepts not yet established in the comic books.
Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
If you are a fan of American musicals (and who isn't) you've probably heard of "Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang". It was one of the admonitions "Professor" Harold Hill uses in Ya Got Trouble (with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool) to the good people of River City, Iowa in The Music Man.
A cartoon by Thomas Nast, titled, A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion, appeared on this day in Harper's Weekly. The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party.
This time of year, it's not uncommon to think of basking in the warm sun, surrounded by oceans of water while munching on exotic fruit, including, of course, golden pineapple slices ... if your fantasy lands you in Hawaii, I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss visiting the World’s Largest Maze at the Dole Plantation. The maze covers more than two acres with a path length of 1.7 miles.
The Chicago-based children's show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, made its national debut on NBC-TV. Fran Allison was hostess. The show was phenomenally successful.
While Steve Jobs was presenting the wonderment that *is* the iPhone, over at the show floor of the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), there were some pretty, shall we say, "uninviting" products being displayed. Here are but a few.
For the first 11 months of 2006, 14,827,220,000 U.S. coins were produced for circulation by the Denver and Philadelphia mints. There were 7,861,200,000 pennies, 1,426,320,000 nickels, 2,735,000,000 dimes, 2,792,600,000 quarters, 4,400,000 half-dollars, and 7,700,000 dollar coins.
The Radio Corporation of America, sometimes known as RCA, announced a new 7-inch, 45 rpm phonograph record. Soon, the 45, the record with the big hole in the middle, would change the pop music business. RCA even manufactured a record player that played only 45s -- with a fat spindle that made "stacking wax" real simple and automatic for those romantic times when hands were just too busy to be flippin' records.
I remember back when there were only two types of potato chips - regular and "riggies". (OK, for that matter, I remember when there was only one type of potato chip ... at least I think I do ;^)
Sawbuck is slang for a U.S. ten dollar bill. The term derives from the fact that older versions of the bill included the roman numeral for ten, "X", which resembles one of the ends of the wood supporting device described below. This name was most common in the days of large-sized notes.
A sawbuck is device for holding rough wood so that it may be sawn into pieces of length usable in a stove or fireplace. Easily made in the field from rough material, it consists of two "X" forms, one at each end, which are stabilized by a central piece. The stock to be cut is placed in the upward facing "V"s of the end pieces where it may then be sawn.
Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers this day in the famous and successful "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's fast-food chain. Dave Thomas spent $8 million on the ads that promoted hamburger sales plus T-shirts, baseball caps, records, greeting cards and countless other items bearing the picture of the elderly cult star.
Back in the late months of 1950, crooner Perry Como was immortalized not on vinyl or tape (well, maybe that, too) but in the lead story of Superman #67. Click on image to enlarge and reveal the burning question of those simpler times.
Sewers have been draining wastewater in Paris since the beginning of the 13th Century, when the city's streets were paved and drains were built on orders from Philippe Auguste, the king of France from 1180 to 1223. Covered sewers were introduced during the reign of Napoléon Bonaparte, and today's network of more than 2,100 km (1,312 miles) of sewer tunnels was begun in 1850. The sandstone tunnels carry drainwater from the streets, sanitary sewers (now in separate pipes), mains for drinking water and the water used for streetcleaning, telecommunications cables, pneumatic tubes between post offices, and (or so one assumes) the occasional rat.
The voice of the TV series Lost in Space Robot was provided by Dick Tufeld, a popular freelance announcer in Hollywood. Mr. Tufeld also did the Robot’s voice for the feature film version of Lost in Space released in 1998.
The Curiously Strong Min ... er Mouse .... here's how to put one together.
Billboard magazine publishes the first pop music chart based on national sales. At Number One: Joe Venuti's "Stop! Look! Listen!"
My kind of "reality" TV show tends more to the DIY genre. There are two notable exceptions and both can be found on the Discovery Channel, Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters. Mythbusters takes on urban legends, actual myths, rumors, wives' tales, you name it. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman do more than explain how something may or may not be scientifically possible. Through trial and error they actually demonstrate it. It's a cool show.
Starbucks Corp. is cutting trans fats from the doughnuts, muffins and other treats in half of its U.S. stores, and plans to eventually drop the artery-clogging fats from company-operated coffeehouses across the country.
There he was, Esteban, playing songs from his new album, Best of Esteban, on a tiny stage between the jugs of Carlo Rossi burgundy and the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. It was the pop-culture icon's first Wal-Mart concert.
