Google tweaked something in its Life Magazine Archives search and now I am finding some of the best photos I was ever able to post on this blog. This batch was taken by the Life photographer William Vandivert in 1938. I can’t place most of these, so feel free to comment.
This sign bothered me for weeks. According to the Wikipedia “@” is pronounced “at” in this country and anything from “snail” to “strudel” everywhere else.
So what is it: Ashcroft, Ashcraft, Ashcratft, Ashcrstrudelft? Is it a little light bulb under the “@”? What is trying to say?
I didn’t attend an advertising school, so I don’t know if they teach the rule about limiting the number of billboards using the word ridiculously to one per square mile. If they don’t, maybe it’s a good time to start.
When you tell people you’re going to Detroit they often give you that “are you crazy?” look and wish you to come back alive or at least unhurt. Pictures of abandoned and destroyed post-apocalyptic Detroit’s ruin-porn make their rounds on the internet, interspersed with scary crime statistics and sad economic news. A person with common sense would probably avoid Detroit, but clearly I am not that person. During a college visit to the nearby Ann Arbor, I set aside two days to check out Detroit because how could I not. Detroit is awesome. And we came back alive and even unhurt, if you don’t count a parking ticket, which did hurt a lot.
If you are not just headed to the Kansas City Public Library to look at porn or have sex, you may want to visit their excellent free exhibit Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow: Living With the Atomic Bomb, 1945-65. Whether you are a history buff or just want to know why your crazy grandpa is storing canned water in the basement, you will find this collection of books, posters, games, educational materials, art and toys curious, exciting and somewhat morbid.
It’s hard to comprehend that generations of Americans grew up with the thought of a nuclear blast being a sure thing always in the back of their mind. And although Geiger counters and Atomic trains seem like cool toys today, at the time they served to get the children used to the idea that someday they will be using the real thing. From the neighborhood and personal fallout shelters to the best-selling atomic handbooks the subject of an inevitable nuclear attack determined the foreign and domestic policy for 20 years after United States bombed Japan and throughout the Cold War era.
As always I took a lot of pictures, but I suggest you check it out for yourself. The exhibit is fairly small and will take you about 30 minutes to get through.
