Weird Universe Blog — November 13, 2024

Take Me, I’m Yours

In 1971 National Airlines launched its "Fly Me" advertising campaign (see previous post). It featured stewardesses identifying themselves by their first names and declaring "Fly Me." The New York Times notes that this campaign won it "enormous animosity from many feminist organizations."

In 1976 National ended the "Fly Me" campaign and replaced it with the "Take me, I'm yours" campaign. From a feminist perspective, not a whole lot better.

The "Take me, I'm yours" campaign lasted only a year before National switched its tag line to "Watch Us Shine."



Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 13, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages | Advertising | Air Travel and Airlines | 1970s

Chicken Charlie

He can be seen starting about the 45-second mark in this short video.







Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 13, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics | North America | Twentieth Century

November 12, 2024

Lunar Space Elevator

We've posted before about the space elevator concept — an elevator going from the surface of the Earth into orbit.

It's not possible to build one with current technology. But what about a lunar space elevator? That's an elevator that would go from the surface of the moon into lunar orbit.

Spacecraft systems engineer Charles Radley argues that "A Lunar Space Elevator [LSE] can be built today from existing commercial polymers; manufactured, launched and deployed for less than $2B."

I'm guessing that dollar amount would need to be multiplied by about 100 to be closer to the actual amount.

More info: "The Lunar Space Elevator, a Near Term Means to Reduce Cost of Lunar Access"

source: wikipedia

Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 12, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy

Artwork Khrushchev Probably Would Not Have Liked 59

Remember my rule for this series? The artwork in question had to be made during Khrushchev's lifetime. Well, I thought 1968 was too late. But no! Nikita lived till 1971.


The artist's Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 12, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Art | Avant Garde | Television | Self-referentiality, Circularity, and Endless Loops | 1960s | Russia

November 11, 2024

Unofficial Insignia of the 509th Operations Group

Info from wikipedia:

In addition to its official insignia, during B-2 stealth bomber test flights, some members of the 509th Bomb Wing procured an unofficial insignia involving an alien, the legend To Serve Man (referring to a famous Twilight Zone episode), and the inscription Gustatus Similis Pullus (Dog Latin for "Tastes like chicken").

Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 11, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Aliens | Military

The Panama Ship Tunnel

You know, once you state the idea, it just all seems so obvious and practical.

Read the article here.








Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 11, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Inventions | Oceans and Maritime Pursuits | Caves, Caverns, Tunnels and Other Subterranean Venues | Mental Health and Insanity

November 10, 2024

Sharing too much during a job interview

Asheville Citizen Times - July 16, 1975

Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 10, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Police and Other Law Enforcement | Stupid Criminals | 1970s

One Dozen Phil Roses





Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 10, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Fashion | Humor | Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings | 1960s

November 9, 2024

A Five-Year Pregnancy

According to a sixteenth-century legend, recounted in the 1560 manuscript Histoires Prodigieuses by Pierre Boaistau, there once was a woman who suffered through a five-year pregnancy. Here's the story as summarized by Dr. Irvine Loudon in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (May 2003):

The woman in question was Marguerite, the wife of George Walezer, who lived in 16th-century Vienna. In 1545 she became pregnant and felt the normal movements of the baby during pregnancy. When she went into labour with 'furious and sharp pains' she called her mother and some midwives. During the long labour they heard a noise and commotion like a cracking inside the mother and thereafter the fetal movements ceased. They assumed, correctly it seems, that the baby had died. The midwives used all their skills but failed to deliver either the baby or the placenta.

Some days later, feeling her pains return, Marguerite summoned a series of most eminent doctors from far and wide, imploring their help. The doctors merely gave her a series of drugs but with no effect. Marguerite therefore 'resolved to let nature take its course and bore with exceeding pain for the space of four years this dead corpse in her stomach'. In the fifth year she finally persuaded a surgeon to open her up and remove the child which was 'half rotted away'. The operation took place on 12 November 1550. Marguerite soon recovered and was 'so full of life and so healthy that she can still [i.e. in 1559] conceive children'.

"The operation on Marguerite of Vienna"



As unlikely as the story may sound, Dr. Loudon argues that it could be true:

Marguerite’s ordeal may have been due to an abdominal ectopic pregnancy. Most ectopic pregnancies occur when the fertilized ovum becomes implanted in the fallopian tube, and a tubal ectopic pregnancy almost always dies after two or three months of gestation. But just occasionally the fertilized ovum becomes implanted in the wall of the abdominal cavity. Sometimes, it is thought, abdominal ectopic pregnancy starts with implantation into the fimbriated end of the fallopian tube and then migrates to the abdominal cavity and invades the peritoneum secondarily...

It may be that Marguerite’s dead baby was never delivered vaginally because it was never in the uterus. Being shut off, so to speak, from the outside world, a dead baby could have escaped being the source of an infection...

In this case, when a surgeon finally agreed to operate, he did not perform a caesarean section; he simply opened the abdominal wall and promptly saw and removed the remnants of the baby. The placenta would not have been a problem because in abdominal ectopics if the baby dies the placenta soon shrivels and can be left intact. This one had five years to shrivel.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 09, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Medicine | Surgery | Medieval Era | Sixteenth Century | Pregnancy

Refrigerator Bowl Queen



Jacksonville State College gamecock football team played against the University of Rhode Island on December 4, 1955 in the eighth annual Refrigerator Bowl at Evansville, Indiana. Gamecocks won 12 to 10. Shown players from the University of Rhode Island and Jacksonville State select a Refrigerator Bowl Queen.







Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 09, 2024 - Comments (4)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Sports | Appliances | 1950s

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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2016 by the author of the post, which is usually either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.

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