• Old Photos: 1958 USSR In Color

    I had some color photos taken by the American correspondents in the USSR on this blog before. This set is titled “Russian Look Of The Land Essay” and was taken by Howard Sochurek in 1958. The original Life article can be found here. (note: the photos are dated 1958 but the article was published in 1960, could be a Google archival error).

    The photos are taken in many places around the USSR – from frozen Yakutsk, to Crimea, to Central Asia. They are not in any particular order.

    Watch Repair, every small town had one or more of these. © Time Inc.Howard Sochurek
    Continue reading →
  • Furious Fatties Fattack™ Ferruzza

    A vicious ham-handed attack was recently perpetrated on the troubadour of the knife and fork and minstrel of all things food – Charles Ferruzza by the humorless militant organized fat people.

    I hate to break it to the fat people, but sitting around and reading the Pitch in search of things to be offended at is not a healthy activity you should be engaging in to become less fat.
    I don’t have any use for organized anything – labor, religion or fat people. No matter how many politically correct titles you invent for yourselves or how much you lobby to be considered normal size, all you have managed to do so far is to take the livelihood away from the people who made a living working for freak shows.

    Lottie Grant, Circus Fat Lady, now considered size 4

    There are two kinds of fat people – the ones who have a sense of humor about their size and the ones who are angry and bitter. The ones who can laugh at “yo mama” joke and the ones who are offended at a drop of a cupcake. I belong to and know plenty of the former but have no desire to associate with any of the latter.

    So the next time you are sitting with another chubby young woman “who seems mortified at having to spend another Friday night with (you) instead of being on a real date”, don’t blame Ferruzza for noticing, with this attitude you’ll spend every Friday night there for the rest of your sad life.

    Order some broccoli and lighten up.

    Continue reading →
  • DOur United Citizens Hoping to Eradicate Breast And Genitalia in Sculpture

    Fellow Citizens (and Permanent Residents) of Kansas City and beyond!

    Time has come to stand up against over-saturation of our visual space with penises, breasts and other dirty, dirty genitals. Everywhere we look, everywhere we turn, we cannot avoid being confronted with genitalia and/or breasts. Some may call it art, but we know better – it’s pornography, a mere glimpse of which leads to lust, perversion and, dare I say, fornication.

    Accidental breast and penis sightings ruin our children. We all know who else loved art in all of its nakedness – people like Hitler, Charles Manson, and, I assume, Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. One day little Hitler was looking at some shameful works of art and the next thing anyone knew….well, we all know what happened next. On the other hand, George W. Bush didn’t like art, especially the obscene kind, and he grew up to be an American President.

    It’s for the well-being of the children that I call upon you to join the new organization – DOur United Citizens Hoping to Eradicate Breast And Genitalia in Sculpture. Let’s prevent the next tyrant or a murdering cannibal from growing up in our communities. Let’s raise our children to be American Presidents like George W. Bush.

    Of course, we denounce any censorship, this is not Soviet Russia after all. Everyone is free to express their opinion and artistry on public property as long as it doesn’t harm the children* and/or biblical in nature. You might have heard of a whorish sculpture which every one of our children is forced to walk by on their way to and from school. Thousands of them come home in tears,embarrassed, shocked and even (god forbid) aroused! They want to know why the photos sent to them by their classmates feature a lot smaller breasts. They want to ask questions like where they can see more art like this. They spend a long time alone in their rooms and hide things hastily (probably art) when we come in unannounced.

    DOur United Citizens Hoping to Eradicate Breast And Genitalia in Sculpture are here to save your children. When the offending sculpture will be finally removed from our sights and melted into something they could sell at Crate and Barrel (or at least ammo), we will all as one call on the Kansas City Administration to

    Remove An Offensive Penis From Its City Hall.

    Yes, your children wandering around the City Hall are confronted with a penis and it hurts them now and for the rest of their lives.

    Click to enlarge the offending penis

    Fellow Citizens (and Permanent Residents) of Kansas City and beyond! DOur United Citizens Hoping to Eradicate Breast And Genitalia in Sculpture have a lot of work ahead of us. This Metro Area is literally stuffed with thousands of penises and boobs.

    We need to move fast before it’s too late and we have another Hitler on our hands.

    Email all the (sculptural) penis and boob sightings to douchebags@gmail.com

    *Everything hurts the children.

    Continue reading →
  • Checked Off My Bucket List: Colonia del Sacramento

    Previously…
    Colonia del Sacramento or simply Colonia is the oldest town in Uruguay.

    Day tours to Colonia available for purchase in Argentina from a variety of sources such as Buquebus include a round-trip on a ferry, a dinner, a tour and transportation around the city. There is not much of a tour (luckily our guide was fluent in English), dinner is average and the transportation is hardly necessary – the historic part of town is perfectly walkable and is close enough to the port. The big difference is the ferry: a newer ferry can make the trip across the river in one hour and the older one takes 3 hours. Since we bought our trip the night before, the faster, more expensive boat was sold out so we took the three-hour tour. My suggestion would be to get on the faster ferry if possible, forgo the dinner and the tour, and explore the town and find food on your own.
    The ferry is nice and comfortable and due to a sell-out we were upgraded to the first class seats automatically and for free. Interestingly, at the passport control in both ports the Argentinian and Uruguayan border officials are sitting side-by-side, stamping your passport with both exit and entry stamps (no visa is required for the US citizens), so you don’t have to go through the procedure again upon arrival.

    If you have a free day in your itinerary, I would highly recommend a trip to Colonia. There is something charming (I am pretty sure this is the first and likely the last time the word charming  is used on this blog) about this town with old cobblestone streets leading to the river; with brightly painted ancient buildings; with a weird mix of trees lining the streets where palms, cacti, and aloes are just as common as European varieties; with numerous restaurants and souvenir shops; with antique cars parked on the streets just for looks, and even nicely preserved Soviet cars. Colonia beckons you to wonder around, explore, take photos, see the sunset, have a coffee at one of the outdoor tables near a restaurant, or just relax watching the boats on the river. On the day we visited Colonia the weather changed from overcast to rain to sunny and the following photos reflect that. Overall, it was probably the most enjoyable side-trip during our visit to Argentina.

    Argentinian Navy
    Continue reading →
  • Old Cribs: Wilt Chamberlain

    These photos popped up in search when I was working on my previous post about Wilt Chamberlain’s early years at KU.  A more recent set of photos was posted when the house went up for sale. A short article by the architect of the house discussing the inspiration behind this unusual design can be found here.

    A Brobdingnagian Bungalow With a View

    was featured in the Life Magazine in March of 1972.

    Aerial view of basketball player Wilt Chamberlain's expansive home.
    Built on a World War II anti-aircraft gun sight, Chamberlain's new pad overlooks Los Angeles. © Time Inc.Ralph Crane
    Continue reading →