Retro Wartime Posters at Cafepress
While tooling around on the internet, I realized I had forgotten all about Cafepress. How could I have done that? Everyone and his roommate’s girlfriend’s uncle’s first girlfriend’s dog sitter’s favorite television personality did up their own custom Cafepress t-shirts . In fact, I had tried my hand in it, too. Since I haven’t been thinking of buying or making anything, it sort of slipped off the radar in my mind. I remember the margin on paper products was slim, but now there are all sorts of funny motivational and inspirational posters, as well as classic posters sold directly through Cafepress.
I was surprised by the selection of retro posters. There are movie posters, such as the Godfather poster, but I had seen those all before. There is also a selection of retro images, such as posters from WWII. Some look familar, but I am wondering if some were created with new artists in the old style. There are so many images from the War that exist just as a couple copies of a poster, so it is not surprising if many are unfamilar. Either way, if you want to create a retro decor, they fit the bill. Some are available in the typical Cafe Press format of poster, mini-poster and framed print.
Of course, always surf around to find original designs from individuals, but if you are looking for classic copyrighted images, Cafepress itself has a lot to offer now.
Speaking of poster, I was wondering where the word originated. The snippet on posters from Wikipedia states, “A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface.” Really? That would include wallpaper. However, Merriam-Webster also insists its “intended for public display.” The word came into vogue during the 1830–40 period.
Stuff for the Pad, wwii | Comment (0)Edith Shain, World’s Second Most Famous Nurse, Passes Away
Florence Nightingale is arguably the world’s most famous nurse, but Edith Shain is a close second. Who is Edith Shain? You might not know her face, but might know the back of her head. Mrs. Shain is one half of the famous couple in the famous WWII era Alfred Eisenstaedt photo of the sailor kissing the nurse in New York City.
Mrs. Shain passed away Sunday, but she will be remembered for posterity. There were as many as 10 men who claimed to be the sailor, with Carl Muscarello proving to be the most likely, but it seems that only Edith Shain seemed to have a legitimate claim as being the nurse. She was 92.
Life magazine has a fantastic slideshow, if you’d like to take a look.
1940s, wwii | Comment (0)Dolphins: From Navy Recruits to Artists
Humans have had a long fascination with dolphins. Their intelligence has been both studied and put to work. We all know about various marine shows at theme parks, but did you know that the US Navy employed dolphins during WWII for particular missions. I believe they also have some dolphins among their ranks to this very day. Below, is a “dolphin badge” that was connected with service on a submarine. Of course, this was for the people. Dolphins were never presented with such insignia as they had no use for it.
Recently, an interesting observation was made about the dolphins at Sea World’s dolphin cove. Have you seen the video about Dolphin Bubbles? It is certainly not your typical exercise of dolphins pressing buttons underwater. This is a behavior that they originated themselves. The phenomena was featured on ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson recently.
It is interesting to note that it appears that the females are more interested in playing with bubbles than the males are. Maybe the females are more detail oriented, or maybe it is just a coincidence and has more to do with the individuality of the dolphins, and the majority being female is just an accident.
The dolphins now have their very own website at http://dolphinbubbles.com. Sea World Orlando has made the videos available to be watched all around the world. Of course, this will probably inspire many people to come and see this for themselves. I wonder, as intelligent as they are, if the dolphins will notice a big surge in folks looking at them through their underwater observatory and will decide to “change it up” and do something different just to mess with people. The other question I have is if one dolphin did it by accident and taught others, or if this is something dolphins do naturally and humans are just noticing now? I guess we won’t know that for awhile, but maybe we should not analyze it and just enjoy the show.
Wartime Fashion of Great Britain
Happy Veteran’s Day!
In honor, I would like to show you this fashion show of 1940s fashions in Great Britain. The show was at Weardale Railway War on the Line weekend. The Weardale is a heritege/historic railway with many supporters. There was a 1940s dance held at Stanhope Station, and the fashion show was part of the weekend as well. The fashion show takes you back in time to see what people were wearing everyday, not just in high fashion. The models are dressed from head to toe in historically accurate clothing. Also of special interest is the appearance of a RAF (Royal Airforce Uniform) as well. Many CC41 labels appear in the garments, which was part of wartime rationing. As fabric was also rationed, coupons had to be presented to purchase them.
I hope you enjoyed this fashion show, and also take the time today to thank a veteran. If you are staying home, call someone up. Everyone has a relative, someone from work, or someone you see at church who has served in one form or another. They do not get thanked enough and today is the day to start doing it from here on out when you see a vet.
1940s, wwii | Comment (1)It started out as a bottle of beer…
Did you know that if you were scuba diving in the Pacific you could take home a WWII souvenir? No, I am not talking about looking for buried vessels. While you are walking along the beach in your flip flops, or whether you are snorkeling, it is possible you could find black sea glass. Normally, you would find translucent whites and ambers and pastels. Why black and what does this have to do with World War II.
You see, the composition of glass bear bottles was different than today. When the glass broke and was smoothed by the natural erosion of the sand and sea over the course of time, the glass remained black. The composition was only used for a short time, due to different materials made scarce by the War. The material decomposed a lot more rapidly.
So, therefore, a World War II private could have made his choice of light versus dark while on his shore time. He could have told a few tales, and tossed it into the sea for good luck. Then, on the way down, it could have broken on the rocks. Then, about 28 years later, a member of the first club devoted to collecting, The Eastern Coast Breweriana Association (ECBA), could have scooped up the treasure in the club’s 1970 charter year. In fact, they were the first such club ever.
Twenty years after that, perhaps one of the members lost their interest and sold part of their collection at a yard sale. During that time, it was the height of the era of filling glass bowls with seed balls, sea glass, and potpourri, and displaying them on your coffee table. Fully 28 years later than that fateful yard sale, you read this blog post. You think nothing of it until Sunday dinner at Grandma’s house. You spy the sea glass in a glass beaker on her coffee table and suddenly remember this blog post. You ask Grandma if you can have a piece. After telling this tale, you all have a toast to the person who threw the bottle into the sea in the first place.
Which reminds me…
There is a contest that I hear about. It is actually a mobile survey on beer. It is limited to 1500 participants, so you have a 1 in 1500 chance in winning. The winner receives a $300 Amazon gift card. To enter and take the survey, just text the word “beer” to 247365. For contest rules CLICK HERE. You only have until midnight, March 14th, to enter.
What will you do with your gift card (Hint: They sell everything discussed in this posting, except a World War II private. You can always buy a book about them, however.)
1940s, trivia, useless information, wwii | Comment (0)
