The Saturday Picture Show, June 17, 2023

 

Everything about this says "1985": her vinyl records, her stereo component system (to which she would add a cassette deck soon, for sure), her CRT TV with rabbit ears, no cable. No cell, no wifi, but a Golden Maize wall-to-wall carpet. 1985.

Anne Francis had been Glenn Ford's wife in "The Blackboard Jungle," and was still a few years away from starring as "Honey West" when she was in 1958's "Forbidden Planet," co-starring Robbie The Robot. We spent that entire decade expecting robots to take over our lives, and are still waiting.

Here is why they call it "Kingsford" brand charcoal: When Henry Ford set up operations to build his Model-T Ford cars, he needed a lot of wood, because the frame, dashboard, steering wheel and the wheels themselves for those cars were all made of wood. Old Henry had a cousin who was married to a man named Kingsford, who was in the real estate business. Kingsford found a large forest in Michigan to supply the lumber, and the extra wood (sawed-off segments, branches, etc) was going to waste until he found a use for it, and that was the charcoal briquet that Dad pours so much lighter fluid on even today. The briquet is the scrap wood and sawdust, bound by cornstarch. The factory that Ford set up for this enterprise was designed by Thomas A. Edison and it was so efficient that it turned out 610 pounds of briquets for every 2000 pounds of waste wood. 

As soon as the burgers are done, these rolls will be ready for them! Cheese, mayo, pickle, and fried onions for me, please!

Now that the kids are out of school for the summer, give them that box that the water heater came in, and some Elmer's Glue, and let them make their Halloween getup early!

In India, they make footbridges from living vines.

It would never dawn on me to rip off items from a hotel room, and I would love to see someone nonchalantly saunter through the lobby with the ironing board under his jacket. But this hotel found a way to let potential thieves expect a bill.

I have a fascination with old brickwork. Imagine the work that went into this hallway!

I'm not sure how important it was in 1912 for an eighth-grader in Bullitt County, Kentucky, to know how to spell "rhinoceros." But I do think the Board of Education should have known how to spell "endeavor" and "Raleigh." 

This picture probably came from a calendar. Kids fishing with bamboo poles in Peoria, Illinois.