As we’ve seen in prior posts like Steve McQueen, universities back in the day would ask celebrity males to objectify judge the female beauties on campus for fun and entertainment. In this 1943 Jayhawker commencement issue, pin-up artist Alberto Varga did the honors.
Chris from the muscleheaded blog should appreciate this. A copy of the letter is included:
And the winner was…Grace McCandless!
This 1919 Motor Age magazine is chock full of great images, so make sure you checked out Part I.
Perfection Asbestos. Isn’t that redundant? 
But it’s not just ads; Detroit was concerned with safety. 
And they had plans for the car of the future. 
One article discussed autogenous welding in automotive repairs. 
And of course, there are the cars themselves, including this bullet-shaped Fiat.
Thanks for spending some time in the past, in a time before all of us were born.
I spent last night, flipping through a 1919 Motor Age, browning and brittling as it nears the century mark. I wish I could post all 150 pages, as interesting as they are, but of course, you would fall asleep by page 20. As I am no Kerbey the Riveter, I know nothing about machines or cars in general, so most of these words my mouth had never spoken. Vulcanizers, carborundum valves, aloxite wheels?
I don’t know what a “jobber” is, but the magazine is filled with the term. And who’s this Dutch girl?
Between the Velie Six and the Cleveland Six, I hadn’t heard of half the automobile manufacturers. See how many of these you recognize.
Here’s the Cleveland Six. Ain’t she a beaut?
Check out this handy luggage carrier. So convenient!
With “The War” having ended only the year prior, life was getting better and better.
Stay tuned for Part II, as we discover more of the 95-yr-old Motor Age.
Last night’s view near twilight was a sight to behold. I could hear Eddie Rabbit rise from the dead, singing, “Well, I love a rainy night, it’s such a beautiful sight…” Of course, folks around here have learned not to get our hopes up. We’ve been (literally) burned too many times to count, hopeful at the sight of darkening clouds and ominous thunder, only to watch it pass us by. While Al Roker chats gloats about rainstorms across the country, central Texas is essentially Penny from The Rescuers, constantly passed over by would-be adoptive parents. For years.
We’ve been in drought conditions for so long, it’s nearly time for Penny’s quinceañera (were she Hispanic, which would technically make her Centavo, and that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it).
But it DID rain last night, and I even went out and danced in it, prompted by fellow blogger, Liz, if only for a few seconds. P.S. rain is cold.
So what if the lightning and thunder kept me up all night long? I’ll sacrifice my slumber for the good of our state.
Award-winning weatherman Jim Spencer keeps us abreast of local changes on his “First Warning Weather,” deciphering the Doppler Weather Radar and making predictions, but (to quote the Aussies), it’s as dry as a dead dingo’s donger.
All of our lakes are hitting record lows. The Lake Travis restaurants like The Oasis and Carlos ‘n’ Charlie’s, so popular for water fun and frolic in the 1990s, now overlook a low-lying lake covered with dune-like islands. When I visited Volente Beach on Lake Travis fourteen years ago, I could see the dry islands popping up even then.
But now it’s much, much worse.
At this point, I don’t know how we’ll ever recoup enough water to get things where they need to be. Our water bills are always in the hundreds each month; that’s par for the course to live in this area. Cattle are dropping dead right and left, reservoirs are drying up. But we won’t give up hope.
Now Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower.” 1 Kings 18:41
More rain may be just around the bend.
Who knew the rotund spinning High Fidelity star was that into frisbee? Or shirtlessness?
Today we’re going to learn about the ostrich, the world’s largest bird. Just because it’s large and flightless, doesn’t mean you should strap a saddle on it and ride it. Case in point.
Look at me, all Hal Linden today, hosting my own Animals, Animals, Animals episode. Woot! Barney Miller up in here, bringing the facts! Okay, calm down, Kerbey. Too much dark roast.
According to www.onekind.org, ostriches are the fastest runners of any birds or other two-legged animal and can sprint at over 70 km/hr, covering up to 5m in a single stride. I don’t know what that is because I live in America, where a meter is something you put coins in to park your car while you go the chiropractor’s office. Actually, 5m is a little over 16 feet. So, basically Shaq times two, give or take an inch. But anyway, that’s super fast, right? Take that, Kenya!
This almost makes sense now.
If you read the writing a the bottom of this postcard, you can see it says “trained ostrich.” Trained? That seems a heady task, considering an ostrich’s brain is smaller than its eye and would hardly fill a teaspoon. Good luck with that.
Per www.southafrica.net, the Roman Emperor Heliogabalus once had the brains of 600 ostriches served up at a feast during his reign 2,000 years ago. Nasty. Although, you know it was free-range and antibiotic free, so props to Heliogabalus. Hey, Dave this sounds like one for The Blog of Funny Names…
Now, listen, around here (since it’s spring), the birds have been chirping up a storm, building nests in my roof and chimney and even the exhaust where our dryer air shoots out. And they are chirping like NOBODY’S BUSINESS, aggressively. Like I could not take a nap to save my life because they are all CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP!!! CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?? Who knew birds were such attention whores? But this is nothing compared to the male ostrich in mating season. He can roar like a lion.
But don’t go near one. If he has red shins, he’s at his most aggressive. Make your own joke up there. And the mating dance is something to behold. This guy starts out with jazzhands/jazzfeathers and then drops down and begins writhing about endlessly.
One swift forward kick can kill a lion. They are Lethal Rockettes, if you will. And in territorial fights between males, they can cause death by slamming their heads into opponents. This is so fight club.
More fun facts from onekind (and their odd British way of spelling) reveal that dinner and dancing precede the brown chicken, brown cow:
If mating is successful, then co-parenting is in order:
Pretty smart for a stupid bird. In fact, an ostrich could be far more valuable than you thought. Although its eggs are good eats (I’ve had one!), every adult ostrich has around a kilogram or more of stones in its crop. Sometimes these stones have been found to be diamonds.!! Yeah, huh, it’s true. The aptly-named www.fascinatingearth.com says so:
About a century ago a hunter shot a wild ostrich. In preparing it for the evening meal, he cut open the gizzard and found several pure gem—quality diamonds among the stony contents. He set out early the next morning to hunt diamond—bearing ostriches…Within a week…prospectors killed the defenseless birds by the thousands. Not all the victims contained diamonds, but some were fantastically rich; in one bird’s gizzard 63 diamonds were found.
Here, boys. When you think of me, think of fattening comfort food. I just hope that she and Jungle Safari Jill next to her were able to score a 2 for 1 deal on perms that month.
I’m feeling a bit peckish. Venison, anyone?
The following Pegasus dress is pretty fly for a white girl, but how could it possibly compare to a graphic 3/4 sleeve sweater that also teaches us dumb Americans to speak French?
Maybe these sweaters were worn by French students? The models look très peeved.
Speaking of apples, check out that big screen monitor!
How about a guy in a sweater, using his Apple to get important work done?
I believe that big slit was where the floppy disk went…
Now that’s the right way to rock an apple!
I Don't Get It 