Category: Culture

Delicious Brick Oven Pizza

Illustrated history of the United States
Illustrated History of the United States

Yesterday, after church, we were saying goodbye to one of our token old people, asking about his latest stent implantation and his knees, sharing about the pizza buffet we’d visited the day before, to which he scrunched up his nose. He nearly shivered with disgust, the way I do when I hear that Kevin Smith will be a guest on tonight’s late-night talk shows.

giphy.com
giphy.com

You see, our septuagenarian hates dairy. He’s not even lactose-intolerant. He just doesn’t like cheese. Even though there are a bajillion cheeses in this world–creamy, melty, full-fat cheeses, he doesn’t cotton to them. And that pretty much rules out a ton of mealtime options. Including pizza. I don’t get it. I’ll eat pretty much any flavor of pizza, thin ‘n’ crispy or deep dish, and I’ll eat it cold for breakfast the next morning. Throw an egg on it, I don’t care.

john's pizzeria
john’s pizzeria

So even though he’s not right in the head, bless his heart, we love him anyway–misguided opinions and all. I understand why he’s so grumpy all the time now. Life without cheese is no life at all.

Oh, and P.S.–that first image isn’t a brick oven at all. It’s a glass factory about 100 years ago, with some child labor thrown in for fun. I’m sure that standing all day on bricks and breathing in that stagnant air made for a long work shift. I bet those boys wouldn’t be prat enough to turn down some cheese.

“The only thing better than singing is more singing.” — Aretha Franklin

1948 Cactus
1948 Cactus

My singing voice is somewhere between a drunken apology and a plumbing problem. – Colin Firth (www.brainyquote.com)

48Cactus051

Some of the wise boys who say my music is loud, blatant and that’s all should see the faces of the kids who have driven a hundred miles through the snow to see the band… to stand in front of the bandstand in an ecstasy all their own. –  

 Stan Kenton

1949 Redskin, Orchestra Leader Stan Kenton
1949 Redskin, Orchestra Leader Stan Kenton

That’s A Big Fat Nope

Naresh & Rajesh Bedi
Naresh & Rajesh Bedi

Hindu women in Shirala, India bow before a “Nalla Pambu” (good snake), a symbol of fertility. Call it what you will, but no snake is a good snake to me. I don’t care if it eats rats. I’ll take rats over venomous snakes any day. Per wikipedia,

The Indian cobra’s venom mainly contains a powerful post-synaptic neurotoxin and cardiotoxin. The venom acts on the synaptic gaps of the nerves, thereby paralyzing muscles, and in severe bites leading to respiratory failure or cardiac arrest.

Good snake, my butt. That snake doesn’t give life; it takes it.

Look, ladies, I feel you on the infertility front. I’ve jabbed needles of Ovidrel in my belly, popped Clomid, and spent hours at the fertility clinic while they spin out the wonky husband samples to find the best and brightest swimmers. More than once. It was expensive and unsuccessful, and it can destroy a marriage. I’ve tried nearly everything under the sun. But never never would I get on my knees, prostrate and in striking range of a cobra.

200 (1)

200 (3) 200 (2)

You Dropped Your Lip Gloss

credit: Chris Johns
credit: Chris Johns

The most vexing part of this picture to me is not the dangerous Footloose scene that comes to mind; it is the fact that it is midnight. Yes, this was the “midnight sun” in Anchorage, Alaska during the summer months of 1988. Broad daylight be damned, denimed young people were still making bad decisions, not the least of which was jacking up their trucks, as well as inviting passengers to sit in lawn furniture with the tailgate down. Courting disaster.

http://basementrejects.com/
http://basementrejects.com/

Champion Ratkiller DeGlopper

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LIfeJan3-44009

In 1944, rats were ravaging farms, gnawing into sill beams, eating poultry and eggs and consuming livestock feed. Rats were estimated to destroy $45 worth of food a year, at a time when chicken and livestock feed were hard to come by.

Little Robert De Glopper was made of sturdier stock than children these days, and consequently made himself quite a profit at 3 cents per dead rat. Ten rats an hour would match the minimum wage of 30 cents.

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Can you imagine if today’s town clerks had to count rat tails?

LIfeJan3-44008

War bond prizes were given to the boy or girl who 1) killed the most rats, 2)the heaviest rats, or 3) the ones with the longest tails. Such fun before TV and video games existed! Even dogs and cats were cited for meritorious work.

Hail, Caesar

LIfeJan3-44001

I know, guys. I see it, too. But that’s because we’re seeing with 2016 eyes that can’t escape the homoerotic undertones. But on January 3, 1944, when it appeared in LIFE magazine, I doubt the viewers saw it that way. The U.S. was two years into WWII, and the boys fighting overseas were always on the mind of the American public.

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It’s difficult to imagine asking the public to stop buying new towels so that the boys overseas could enjoy them. Society is so self-centered now, so absorbed with our own personal liberties, that I can’t imagine the country getting on board with sacrificing soft towels for the greater good.

LIfeJan3-44002

This is yet another of my Life magazines that has begun to crumble like an autumn leaf into little beige bits. It won’t last long enough to pass down to posterity, but hopefully, I can scan some more images before it takes its last breath.

Light It Up, But Don’t Inhale

LIFE Century of Change
LIFE Century of Change–Gordon Tenney

Nope, this isn’t like Clinton denying that he ever inhaled. If you can believe it, these business execs were gathered at a meeting to encourage lighting up. It was 1963, the year before the surgeon general’s warning against smoking, and heck, even the president did it.

http://www.substance.com/
http://www.substance.com/

The cigar manufacturer, Stephano Brothers, taught lessons on how to enjoy a stogie without inhaling, a means of career advancement by sophisticated habit. Sounds like pretense.

http://www.relique.com/
http://www.relique.com/

Even Ronald Reagan knew the score.

pinterest
pinterest

Isn’t it odd how it refers to the “satisfying fragrance” of cigars? Pipe smoke, now that’s a horse of a different color. That smell makes me happy. Cigar smoke, not so much. However, these ladies didn’t seem to mind.

www.famous-smoke.com
http://www.famous-smoke.com