Fantastic French Publicity Caravans of Yesteryear

My wormhole began with this photo of the world’s first (possibly only) vehicle-shaped pen, the BIC mobile, photographed at the Tour de France in 1953. I’ve never been an avid follower of the annual cycling race that was created in 1903 by a French newspaper as a gimmick to sell more papers– but this? Give…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol CCLXXXIX)

1. Morro Bay Antiques Located in California, it was an abandoned old diner for a while, thankfully, it’s now an antiques emporium. 2. Rotary telephone compacts, originally designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali, 1935 Mass-produced in the 1950s. Found here. 3. Wedding between female lovers, circa 1900s Found on reddit. 4. Native…

They are the Chinese Restaurant Road Trippers

Do you get the feeling that everything on Instagram looks the same? You’re looking to find a connection; a story in that handheld device; but all you can ever seem to find is the empty equivalent of a birds eye shot of someone’s lunch? When something manages to make you feel something through that little…

Don’t Miss the Miniature Wine Windows of Florence

Of the 16 million tourists that visit Florence on average per year, I wonder how many of them walk by the old palazzos without ever noticing their most interesting little secret hiding in plain sight. At about 18 centimetres wide and 35 centimetres high, they are just the right height to fit a bottle of…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol CCLXXXVIII)

1. NASA’s Giant Wind Tunnels Throughout the 20th century, NASA (and its predecessor, NACA) made extensive use of gigantic wind tunnels to test and refine designs for airplanes, spacecraft, and many other vehicles and structures in efforts to make flying safe… The largest, still in operation, is the 80-foot by 120-foot tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research…

Yearbook Memories of a Historically Black University

It’s that time of year when college graduates are throwing off their caps and I thought this might be a good time to share some photographs I’ve been accumulating for a while now. Gathered here from the internet, are bits and pieces from the early yearbooks of Howard University, a historically black college and one of…

Even With a Name Like Aloha Wanderwell, You’ve Probably Never Heard of Her

You could say she was the female Indiana Jones, except of course, Indie was a fictional character, and Aloha Wanderwell was very much the real deal. After landing a seaplane on an unexplored stretch of the Amazonian River, she captured the first-known visual recordings of Stone Age peoples while living amongst the Bororo tribe, and when…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLXXXVII)

1. Flying First Class with Air France, 1957 Photos by Eugene Louis Kammerman, photographer for the United States Army, he married a French woman and decided to stay in France. Found on Eye of Photography. 2. The Howard University Glee Club, 1936 Established in 1867 – Howard is a Tier 1, private, historic co-educational…

The American Jet Set Artist who Painted the Peak of 1980s Excess

When a former beauty queen-turned-dictator’s wife commissions you to paint her family portrait, you know you’d better do it– and make them all look as fabulous as they did on last week’s episode of Dynasty. The year was 1982 when Imelda Marcos, the First Lady of the Philippines with the world’s largest-known shoe collection, first…

If the Flintstones Vacationed in France: A Guide to the Cave Villages

If a French chateau is a little out of your vacation budget, why not consider a cave house? Unforgettably unique and even more historic, the “troglodyte” homes of France; those ancient rocks dwellings dotted along quiet country roads of the Loire, or deep in the basin of Dordogne; were built 100 millions years ago by…