Ben, The Two Of Us Need Look No More
Category: 1940s
Bountiful Crop Of Babies
“Here the atomic bomb is developed. People in Los Alamos lead almost normal lives. Residents have no unexpected visitors, no graveyards, no unemployment, and no real-estate taxes, but they do have a bountiful crop of babies. By showing passes, they are free to leave the reservation as they please; yet some complain of feeling shut in.”
Nebraska Winter
Take These Jobs And Shove Them
I’ve my thrown my back out several times both sneezing and stepping off curbs the wrong way. I am not cut out to drive logs on the Swift Diamond River in New Hampshire, like these fellows. I am weak.
Nor can I tug wagons o’ tires.
When rubber came to Ohio in 1910, Akron became a boom city, and guys like this were able to breathe rubber fumes all day.
Here’s another job I can’t do due to my fear of heights. Is he washing windows? Is he scaling the sides of buildings to fulfill a male superhero fantasy? All I know is that was 40 years ago, and he ain’t doing it now.
And the last job I wouldn’t want: naked bakery boy.
It’s not because I’m uppity or that I don’t love gluten, because I loves me some glutenny gluten. But I would need an apron. And some sort of hair net so as not to get stray hairs into the sourdough.
Overaccessorizing With Pottery
Spring = Melting Igloos
A Mercury For St. Paddy
Here, Let Me Talk Down To You
How To Be Extra This Swimsuit Season
With spring upon us in just three weeks, I can’t help but start preparing my poolside wardrobe. Sure, you may have a fab, supportive one-piece and stilettos, but do you have a complimentary bonnet–the kind that reminds you of the underside of a mushroom cap? Jeanne Crain sure did in 1944. Sun protection for her fabulous face!
Speaking of sun protection, actress Betty Hutton protects her mug with a salmon-colored parasol that coordinates perfectly with her swimsuit.
Is it over-the-top, dramatic, and extra? Yes. I mean, there’s a tiger. Folks complain about shark attacks at the beach, but it’s tigers that mostly do the mauling. And is it me, or does Betty look a little…I won’t say trans per se, but maybe just a bit masculine? It’s probably just the lighting of her shoulder, right?
No need to be extra if you’re Norma Jean herself. It doesn’t take high drama for her to get noticed. But well before she bleached her hair into the famous Monroe coif, she donned a bikini nearly as pale as her skin. Talk about alabaster. Okay, so maybe she’s not being extra at all (just sitting on a diving board at the community pool), but she was EXTRA white!
Perhaps you weren’t born pale ale like Whitey McWhitey. Perhaps you were gifted with tan skin like Yvonne DeCarlo. What can you do to set yourself apart from the mainstream? Find yourself a set of pier posts dangerously high above the surf, climb atop them and perch yourself, as though you can’t feel the sharp wood etching itself into your bum. Folks might think you’re mad, but what a shot for Instagram. Just don’t plummet to your death.
Still need something more eye-catching in your swimwear? How about ruched gold lame? It slims protrusive abdomens and instantly makes any woman look 20 years older. Case in point: here we have Carolyn Jones (aka Morticia Addams) posed aboard a ship railing, looking much older than her 31 years. It brings to mind an image of one’s randy aunt, having escaped her Carnival cruise cabin, full of gin, and ready to mingle.
Not extra enough? Look no further than drama queen Kim K herself, the queen of incessant yet unnecessary self-promotion, trying too hard to seem casual, while her swimsuit struggles to contain her underboob. Notice me! Validate me! Pay attention!
Groovy, Man, Groovy
Here we see three wasted Indochinese men being unproductive after their opium fix. LIFE magazine didn’t mince words:
This woman took a hard pass on addictive substances and showed up to the warehouse on time to dry some crepe. 
The article presented a violent look at the Indo-China region, with Tran Dang Man (aka “The Pirate”) lifting his sword in allegiance to the French, whom he and his 25 Annamite troops joined as professional bandits.
French Indochina is now today’s Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos.
Cambodian soldiers man a guard tower on a highway leading to Saigon, while the bullock carts hauled rice below, hoping that the 8mm Hotchkiss machine gun wasn’t pointed their way.
In down times, men in Saigon perched on fences like birds on a wire.
This toddler seems to be wondering what the future holds.
Now You’ll Never Get Her Off Your Back
(Insert Tasteless Sylvia Plath Joke)
I’ll let you make up your own title on this one. Plath was the clinically depressed poet who stuck her head in an oven and died of carbon monoxide fumes, but had the good sense and forethought to seal up the walls, so that her nearby children should not perish in their rooms. Nice.
Still not a good case for electric, though.
This is such a fun scene, with three generations of folks, prepping dinner. The apron matches the curtains. Everyone is thin, skirted, and cheery. What more could you want? Other than a gas range.
I Don't Get It 