Help Wanted: Special Education
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of USC. All opinions are 100% mine.
Some of my friends are fretting over the current job situation that they are in. Many are employed but a few have found themselves with a pink slip. To me, it is a time to get more competitive and to go back to basics. The professions that seem to be hiring across the board are in the medical field or, to some extent, are specialized teachers.
Across the nation, school districts are in a reshuffle. As jobs move, some districts find that they need to combine classes to respond to lower enrollment numbers while some are experiencing a boom. Teachers are getting pink slips in some cases. Luckily, in places such as Washington, D.C., teachers are retained based on performance rather than merely tenure. Even so, the need for new teachers is very much there. However, the greatest need is for teachers who specialize either in special education or have scientific qualifications to teach technical classes. In fact, Not that teachers with general degrees are not needed, but the more flexible you can be or the more you have in your toolbox, the greater chance you have as districts shuffle things around.
The problem sometimes is finding the time, or with someone who is unemployed, having the extra resources such as gas money to attend a Masters program. Another dilemma is deciding to be away from a newborn baby. If you have found yourself in this dilemma, you may want to check out the program information from the USC Rossier School of Education.
Whether you are a teacher with a Bachelor’s Degree and want to define your niche, or you have a degree in another discipline and want to teach, you can learn from the comfort of your home. There is an extensive online program that includes a tuition reimbursement program and an accelerated program. There are local field based experiences, so don’t worry about just reading a book and not being able to apply it. The school is ranked #9 for education programs among private institutions and #22 nationwide.
Have you considered going for additional degrees or certification online? If so, tell me what your experiences have been?
1974: Sansabelt Slimmed and Trimmed
Ah, Sansabelt.
Today Sansabelt is at the butt of some jokes, portrayed as the fashion detail for folks who are looking for extra room in their drawers at turkey time. Did you know that back in the day, Sansabelt pants were considered pretty fashionable? What, no belt? Are you crazy? In fact, Jaymar offered the feature on their stylish windowpane plaid dacton trousers. There were oodles of celebrity endorsements, including one by Tom Shaw. At the time of this 1974 advertisement, he was the youngest touring professional golfer. In other words, they were pitched as pants for an active lifestyle. Or at least one that including walking, then stopping, then walking, then stopping.
The pants’ “exclusive hidden waistband never ceases to slim him, trim him, keep his shirt tail in and provide an incredible feeling of comfort around the middle.” Brown plaid is not your thing? “Sansabelt Slacks with Dacron polyester come in virtually every cut, color and pattern, each designed to look lavish, yet made to wear and wear.” And wear they do. I have found dozens of examples of the pants that look like the day they came out of the factory.
They were also known as the slacks seen on NBC, not that anyone was squinting at their 12″ black and white searching to see if anyone was wearing a belt.
I am just glad that Tom Shaw was a relatively conservative dresser. At the time, plaid pants were a little more de reguer than they are in 2010. I am not sure if you remember my post about 40s golder Tommy Goodwin and his fashion choices that kind of creep some folks out. (Click to see purely at your own risk).
1970s, 1974, sports, vintage ads | Comments (3)Slipping and Sliding to Vegas
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of KAO Brands. All opinions are 100% mine.
The Temptation is Beautiful Sweepstakes is afoot, and KAO brands is giving away a trip to Las Vegas for one lucky entrant and their three best friends. They cannot guarantee that you will be best friends upon your return. Perhaps it would be best to choose three strangers to go with you in that case. KAO brought us products such as Curel and Jergens creams. It amazes me how many formulations and brands of hand and body lotions there are.
In his book of wit and wisdom, Michael J. Nelson addresses his wife’s well stocked cabinet of creams and gels in the essay “Moist As I Want to Be:”
Only because I was absolutely certain she wouldn’t mind, I recently waited until she was gone, dug through the bathroom cabinets, and took out all moisturizers, creams, unguents, lotions, salves, humectants, ointments, cerates, oils, cosmetics, epithems, embrocations, liniments, and depilatories of a woman who loves in my house (who may or may not be my wife–I shall not disclose her identity). There were approximately thirty-six pounds of “4-in-1 moisturizing cleansers with hydrospheres” alone. Land sakes, how moist does this woman who lives in my house want to be? Is there a point at which you can soften yourself to death?
- Michael J. Nelson, Mind Over Matters
I never believed that softening oneself to death was possible, but Nelson has opened my eyes to the reality. There are folks with serious skin conditions, but barring that, are we all just working to achieve the goal of slipping under doors a la Flat Stanley? While you figure that out, might as well enter the Temptation is Beautiful sweepstakes. If you don’t win the trip, you could potentially win….even more lotions and cream. Therefore, you will truly be able to test the theory if endangerment from being too softened is possible. There is a quiz on the site to determine your temptation style. Are you as cool as a cucumber or are you hot, hot, hot? It doesn’t answer my previous question, but if we are all aware of our relative hotness or coolness, maybe it will help us determine if we need more or less lotion, whether you are a gal or a dude.
Of course, I had to play with it. I guess I am cool as a cucumber. Maybe that’s why I had few dates in college. I wore my Sunglasses at Night. I had a smile that looked either indifferent or botoxed…
Don’t Step on My Black Leather Slip-Ons
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of GetZat. All opinions are 100% mine.
The number of full service shoe websites seems to be soaring. However, on most of them, men’s footwear is omitted or only given a cursory node, mainly providing the men’s version of a few pairs of western boots. 
Gotham City Online offers several lines for the guys, and they run from the slightly trendy to the more unusual sneaks.
Wood you have guessed that the shoes, at left, were tennis shoes? I would never have given them that label, but since I am not the manufacturer or peddler, I just have to “go with it.” At left is the “Elvis” Sullivan shoe, made of leather in a slip on configuration. Monogrammed studs, gold and of course a huge cutout gothic letter “E” rounds out the package. I wonder what “The Kind” would have thought of these, unless they are really fashioned with “El Vez,” the Mexican Elvis Impersonator or The Flying Elvi in mind. If it were the latter, then they will sell out immediately as there are quite a few of those guys.
Upon further research, Elvis Shoes was inspired by the early years of Elvis “before he became inaccessible;” when he “picked his own wardrobe.” Do you think the early Elvis would have chosen shoes like this? As a side note, it seems that the shoe du jour is the sneaker these days. No one is styling dress oxfords “inspired by the stars” these days.
1947: The Three Faces of Steve
As a teenager, I became a student of early photography. I enjoyed watching documetaries anbout it, and sitting at the library going through photo books. There was a lot of early “trick photography” made possible by the extended exposure times. You could create “ghosts” by moving the person every few seconds or so. Occasionally, a mistake would happen in the modern photo lab and you would get pictures run together. It doesn’t happen now with digital, but sometimes with 110 or even 35 mm film, you got someone who was asleep at the switch or you just didn’t advance the film far enough and got an overlap. Sometimes, the snap shooter could try to convince you that you are really seeing something wonderful and intentional.
Why am I even talking about this? There is a very disturbing 1947 suit advertisement I came across and I am just trying to figure out the purpose/inspiration behind it. It reminds me of a particularly creepy multiple exposure.
I don’t know what it is that creeps me out the most. Maybe it is not really the three headed multi exposure but the haughty glare this young man has on his face. He seems to say, “How dare you disturb me, a pox on you!” Maybe he is a vampire. Shame on me for “judging” someone who I don’t know, and may have never existed in the first place.
I understand that the advertiser is attempting to illustrate that the satin rayon lining comes in three wonderful colors – navy, black, and brown (woohoo!), but even to the trade, I could imagine that they would have inadvertantly scared people away from their booth at the trade show. Of course, the exception is if it was a booth for the National Vertigo Sufferers Association, they were enticing someone to try illicit drugs.
Maybe I am oversensitive or just have an overactive imagination, but if I was a child in 1947 and got ahold of this, I would have had nightmares for sure (worse than clown dreams).
1940s, vintage ads | Comment (0)Happy Birthday, Chuck Norris
All of us at VintageGent’s Menswear Daily wish Mr. Texas Ranger the happiest of birthdays. Mr. Chuck Norris is 70 years old today, March 10th. However, his biceps are 55 years old and his Foot of Fury is 70 years and 9 months old (Of course, he was kicking way before he left the womb). We are sorry, Feet, that we missed your official birthday. We will be wishing his guns a Happy 70th in 15 years. Until then, we cower under our 1950s Robsjohn Gibbings coffee table for fear of him wondering why this was not done earlier in the day.
In honor, here are a few gems from ChuckNorrisFacts.com:
Most Boots are Made for Walking. Chuck Norris’ aren’t that Merciful.
Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch. HE decides what time it is.
Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.
Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.
When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris
The Manhattan Project was not intended to create nuclear weapons, it was meant to recreate the destructive power in a Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick. They didn’t even come close.
entertainment | Comment (0)1974: Wear Your Shirt In a French Way
It’s 1974 week, everybody! In honor of SOMEONE’S birthday (The VintageGent-ette), the Daily will bring you all sorts of retro goodness from the 4th year of the Decade of the Creepy Moustache.
Ah, Paris! The lone accordian player on the street corner. Baguettes. Red geraniums on a wrought iron balcony. Mimes. LOTS of mimes. Forget the Italian suit; no man’s wardrobe would be complete without the French style shirt. But, as the Arrow ad contests, the shirt is not merely French, the reason for wearing it is VERY French too. Does that mean the wearer suddenly decide that Marcel Marceau is a genius and started eating pom frites? This ad appeared in current events and men’s magazines in 1974.
Luckily, the folks at Arrow decide to clue us in on exactly what this all means. And it has nothing to do with mimes. Just read the fine print, Monsieur and Madame:
Is Arrow implying that the shirt was created by women so they could determine if a man was arm candy material or not? Just take away all the amply cut windowpane plaid blazers to check out what one is really advertising? But what if the gentleman is not slim and trim but rather round and um…untrim? Do ladies still want to see the “shape of a man’s body?” In the 70s, arm holes were smaller and shirts and jackets were more fitted in the shoulders than their modern counterparts. Overall, I think that it is a smart looking albeit basic shirt…relatively speaking…but the ad description is a hoot. I am sure if I went to France and interviewed 100 men I would get a few guys spitting their French Roast out their nose if I asked them “If every Frenchman wears shirts cut to show their shape.”
But is that why “American Men Look So Good?” Then why not call the shirt “American Style.” Ah, but one has to make a blue button down shirt sound a bit more exotic than that. Or maybe this shirt is put away, and in a couple of years, this guy gains some weight so he wears it unbuttoned and dons the latest fashion accessory – a disco chain.
1970s, vintage ads | Comment (1)
