Reading Has Sex Appeal

Some class is having students do papers on Harvard University as a brand.  This reminded me of my small collection of old advertisements for the Harvard Classics.  This first one was one of the earliest, and I stupidly did not take down the source.  Since then, I've used all the indexes that include ad text, but I still can't track it down.  I was able to find a better copy in a book*, but the book gave no source information.  I love this ad, because it touts the Classics as a marital aid.

(For a larger image go here.)

I have other, less racy examples too.

 Life, September 28, 1922 page 27
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Life, Novemeber 23, 1922 page 27
(For a larger image go here.)

*Those were the good old days: a happy look at American advertising, 1880-1930, by Edgar R. Jones, Simon & Schuster: New York, 1959, page 310.

A Nice Old Post Card

This nice old post card is from a Map Collection collection not-yet-processed, so I cannot provide a call number.  They are using the image to advertise an exibition of the Panama Canal in maps.  It is a rare illustration of Aqua-eroticism.

Two Birds with One Stone

It's the last day of National Poetry Month and the day after William & Kate's wedding.  So here is a poem by Stevie Smith in the nick of time.

The Hat*
I love my beautiful hat more than anything
And through my beautiful hat I see a wedding ring
The King will marry me and make me his own before all
And when I am married I shall wear my hat and walk on the palace wall. 

 *Stevie Smith, The Collected Poems, New York: New Directions Books, 1983, page 272.

Dear Reader, I Totally Love You!

Down-Memory-Lane Monday: Young Love

Around the time I took this picture, Karen, Louise, and I were fans of Paul Revere and the Raiders. We watched them on TV; it must have been the show Where the Action is. Though they appeared in a later show called It's Happening. In either case, we did watch them regularly and were particularly enamored of Paul Revere. We decided to send him a gift of chewing gum. I can't remember whether it was bubble or grown-up style. Some time later, we received a thank you note: a form thanking Kare, Louise, and Colleen for our "groovy gift." I don't know who kept the letter. Perhaps Karen will remember.

Millennial Memories in Anticipation of Valentine's Day

From lileks.com

It was just about 10 years ago that I started seeking year-2000-predictions for a library display. I only wanted prophecies from scientists, academics, and think tanks--respected intellectuals. I remembered prophecies made when I was a teenager: 3-day work weeks, colonies on the moon, robot servants. Some economists in the 60s had worried that an excess of free time would plague the 21st century. Frankly, I was pretty pissed off at the way things turned out. In the name of truth, justice, and the American Way, I needed to hold these prophets up to ridicule.
Most of the predicting happened in the 60s and 70s, after which it tapered off. But I did dig up one daring futurist who, from the standpoint of 1982, predicted that we would be able to marry robots by the year 2000. OK, you may ask, why would I want to marry a robot? You can just buy a vibrator. Why should a more sophisticated masturbation aid require matrimony? Well, Arthur Harkins (University of Minnesota) expected we'd have real artificial intelligence by now that would make robots a lot more interesting. They might even be smart enough to have their own preferences about whom they wanted to marry. But even without AI, "The great bulk of human relationships are formulated on a ritualistic basis, which is to say that most humans, in their relationships with wives or lovers, expect a kind of metronomic precision of expected behavior and expected responses to occur over time," he explained.* Ick.

O.K. I was not bitter about the failure of the robot-marriage prediction. My first thought was that if this guy was married when he gave the interview, his wife would've killed him.

I googled Arthur Harkins. He is still alive and still at the University of Minnesota.
*Computerworld, May 17, 1982 p.19