Bruce's Smorsasborg

 Found this amusing magazine, Celebrity, on the Internet archive. Article is titled "What Every Man Should Know About Love,' authored by Evelyn "Treasure Chest" West. Enjoy! If you are terrific with other girls, keep it to yourself. Your date won’t be interested. Where a man rejects love gradually, women think nothing of rejecting it suddenly. She may pretend she hates to break a man’s heart, but secretly she doesn’t even feel it’s worth an apology. If you don’t want to be a woman’s slave, then don’t borrow money from her. It is beneath a woman’s dignity to respect a man who has to borrow from her. If you are married, bear in mind that girls would rather flirt with you than a single man. This is especially true if your wife is present, as women like to hurt each other. In order to impress you, a woman would rather break out with a rash sipping champagne, than enjoy, with no ill affects, a cold glass of beer. If you take a flirt to your apartment—never leave her alone...

 By Bruce Shawkey One of the reference books I always kept on my shelf was the World Almanac. Turns out it has had a long and interesting history, as detailed in this wiki entry. The first edition of The World Almanac was published by the New York World newspaper in 1868 (the name of the publication comes from the newspaper itself, which was known as the World). Published three years after the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, its 120 pages of information touched on such events as the process of Reconstruction and the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. Publication was suspended in 1876, but in 1886, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who had purchased the World and quickly transformed it into one of the most influential newspapers in the country, revived The World Almanac with the intention of making it "a compendium of universal knowledge." The World Almanac has been published annually since. During World War II, The World Alman...

 By Bryce Shawkey Interesting article on coinage from an old book, "A Million of Facts and Correct Data in the Entire Circle of Sciences," published in 1833, sort of an early version of "The World Almanac and Book of Facts," which is still being published today, incidentally.  -------------------------- MONEY AND COINS. Whatever represents property, and is portable, is called currency. When currency is abundant or cheap, property is high or dear in currency; and when less in amount, property is cheap in currency. Paper is a better and more convenient social currency, if secured, and of steady amount, than the precious metals; and among different nations, any commodity which one possesses and the other wants, is equivalent to the commodity of gold or silver, for payment and exchange. Silver was first coined by Phidon, king of Argos, about 880, the epoch of the building of Carthage, and about 140 years after the building of Solomon's temple. The most ancient known...

Many fantasize about living in a different decade or even a different century other than the one they were born into. Many people choose postwar America. Sure, people think of this when they think of 50s America. But this was also 50s America: So, there is good and bad in every period of history. But I think of it every now and then, because I don't particularly like living in the era of Donald Trump. Yes, of course there are many great things about living now, including the technology that allows me to write this blog. But every day, I am reminded that a convicted felon was elected -- by a considerable margin no less -- president of the United States. 

 How to be the perfect waitress is the topic of this book, by Anne Frances Springsteed. The book, published in 1894, is 130 pages long and covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper. Supper is distinguished from dinner when it is necessary to gain time for an evening entertainment or when for other reasons a shorter instead of longer meal is desirable. I'll quote a section from breakfast because this is often my favorite meal of the day.  Breakfast  Oranges. Pearled Oats with Cream. Lamb Chops. Creamed Potatoes. Bread. Hot Muffins. Butter. Coffee. Milk. Cream. or Hot Milk.  The breakfast given is a usual one in many households. Learn to serve this properly, and it will be easy to make changes where ideas vary as to comfort and convenience. To serve the breakfast given there will be needed : Napkins, tumblers, salt cups, pepper boxes, salt spoons, butter plate and knife, bread - and - butter plates, bread plate, bread knife, bread board, muffin dish, water ...

By Bruce Shawkey The Elements of Style is a style guide for formal grammar used in American English writing. The first publishing was written by William Strunk Jr. in 1918, and published by Harcourt in 1920, comprising eight "elementary rules of usage," ten "elementary principles of composition," "a few matters of form," a list of 49 "words and expressions commonly misused," and a list of 57 "words often misspelled." Writer and editor E. B. White greatly enlarged and revised the book for publication by Macmillan in 1959. That was the first edition of the book, which Time recognized in 2011 as one of the 100 best and most influential non-fiction books written in English since 1923.[1] Here's what American wit Dorothy Parker said about the book: If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is...

 By Bruce Shawkey I found an interesting book on the Internet advising women on how to drive their cars ... everything from appropriate dress to performing routine maintenance. The photo at left details the starting of the engine using a crank. This is a strenuous task even for a man. Here's what the author advises women to do: In front of the car you will notice a handle. Push it inwards until you feel it fit into a notch, then pull it up sharply, releasing your hold of the handle the moment you feel you have pulled it over the resisting (compression) point. On no account press down the handle — always pull it upwards, smartly and sharply. If it is pressed down the possibility of a backfire is greater — and a broken arm may result. This, however, is not a common occurrence, and is one that is brought about entirely through carelessness on the part of the would-be driver.  Here is advice on self defense precautions: If you are going to drive alone in the highways and byways it...

 By Bruce Shawkey Found this interesting book on the Internet, The How and Why Series, this one talking about the moon The book was written in 1960, before the moon landing, so much has been learned of the moon since the book was published. But still, observations of the moon are pretty much spot on. Here is what the book had to say: Our nearest neighbor in space, the moon, appears to be made of rock, not much different from the rocky part of the earth. Indeed, it must have come from the same source as the earth. Some scientists think it was actually torn from the earth, leaving the basin of the Pacific Ocean. Since, on the average, it is less than 235,000 miles from the surface of the earth, we can make out some features of the moon's landscape, even without a telescope. With the largest telescopes, the magnified image of the moon is equivalent to what you could see with the unaided eyes at a distance of less than 200 miles. This is near enough to make out objects only a few hundr...

 By Bruce Shawkey Highlights for Children, often referred to simply as Highlights, is an American children's magazine. It was started in June 1946 by educators Garry Cleveland Myers and Caroline Clark Myers in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. They worked for the children's magazine Children's Activities for twelve years before leaving to start Highlights. The Highlights tagline is "Fun with a Purpose". Highlights does not carry any third-party advertising or commercial messages. It relies solely on subsciptions. Company history Garry Myers earned a PhD in psychology from Columbia University before World War I, providing a basis for the teaching he would do the rest of his life. He and Caroline Myers taught illiterate soldiers for the US Army, with Caroline becoming the first female teacher employed by the Army. This experience led to their pioneering of elementary education. They taught educators and parents for a time at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio...

 By Bruce Shawkey I remember my grandparents watching "The Joe Pyne Show" on late-night TV, when they wanted a break from "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. I thought it odd that my typically mild-mannered grandparents would want to watch a show filled with anger and confrontation. But there it was. The show is being called the prototype for more modern-day "shock shows" hosted by the likes of Howard Stern, Geraldo Rivera, Morton Downey, Phil Donahue, and others. The episodes I remember typically involved Joe insulting guests where they would walk off the set --- KKK. Nazi, and John Birch guests. One of Joe's catch phrases was "Oh, go gargle with razorblades." The rest of this entry I am paraphrasing from an NPR article on Pyne. One thing absolutely forbidden on the show was to mention Joe's wooden leg, which resulted from an injury during World War II, where he served in the Marines. That injury turned cancerous, which resulted in th...

Found this interesting book on the Internet, so bought a copy off eBay for $24. Some cool images and recipes, some of which I'll share below.  And, of course, being an Australian book and author, I have to say a few words about Vegenite. Never even heard of this stuff until Men at Work mentioned it in their song, "Down Under." Next, I heard it while on a cruise to Australia, where many Aussies were on board, and Royal Caribbean felt compelled to offer Vegemite to their guests in little packets similar to what jelly and jams come in: Aussies even make a sandwich out of this vile, salty stuff by spreading it on bread, the proverbial "Vegemite sandwich" mentioned in the Men at Work song.

 By Bruce Shawkey Found this interesting book on the Internet Archive, The Words You Should Know to Sound Smart, a kind of "fake it 'til you make it" philosophy promoted in the business world. Here are some pages from the book:

 By Bruce Shawkey Found this interesting book on the Internet archive. It's a 240-age book on the joys of Crisco shortening. Crisco is an American brand of shortening that is produced by B&G Foods. Introduced in June 1911 by Procter & Gamble, it was the first shortening to be made entirely of vegetable oil. Here is part of the introduction:  The Story of Crisco The culinary world is revising its entire cookbook on account of the advent of Crisco, a new and altogether different cooking fat. Many wonder that any product could gain the favor of cooking experts so quickly. A few months after the first package was marketed, practically every grocer of the better class in the United States was supplying women with the new product. This was largely because four classes of people: housewives chefs, doctors, and  dietitians were glad to be shown a product which at once would make for more digestible foods, more economical foods, and better tasting foods. Cooking and H...

 By Bruce Shawkey Of all the electronic organs, the Hammond B3 paired with the Leslie speaker is arguably the most famous. There were many varieties of the Hammond organ, but the most popular variety, and the one still commonly used today (if you can find one that isn’t too beat up) is the Hammond B-3. This organ has two 61 note keyboards, a variety of built-in special effects, (including "percussion" effects, several different chorus and vibrato effects, and adjustable attack and decay effects), 9 preset keys for both manuals, (the inversely white and black keys on the bottom octave of each manual), two sets of nine stops (drawbars) for each manual, a full two octave set of foot pedals with two pedal drawbars built in to the console, a volume pedal (expression pedal) built into the base, a solid walnut body with 4 legs and base, a built-in stool, and it weighs at over 400 pounds. Also, it needed to be run through a separate speaker called a Leslie, which also came in many va...

 By Bruce Shawkey There have been hundreds and perhaps thousands of books written over the years and decades about cats. But perhaps none so exhaustive than "The Book of the Cat" with 422 published in 1903 and authored by Frances Simpson, (ca. 1857 – 1926) an English writer, journalist, cat show judge, and cat breeder. The book chronicles the love of cats, from ancient Egyptian times to then current day. She was a fervent supporter of blue Persians. Here are a few pages from her book.

By Bruce Shawkey The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by the Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relatively low price was partly the result of Ford's efficient fabrication, including assembly line production instead of individual handcrafting. The savings from mass production allowed the price to decline from $780 in 1910 (equivalent to $26,322 in 2024) to $290 in 1924 ($5,321 in 2024 dollars. The Model T was colloquially known as the "Tin Lizzie". The Ford Model T was named the most influential car of the 20th century. Ford's Model T was successful not only because it provided inexpensive transportation on a massive scale, but also because the car signified innovation for the rising middle class and became a powerful symbol of the United States' age of modernization.With over 15 million sold, it was ...