Dieselpunk Saturday: Monofail

What's the difference between Popular Science and Astounding Tales in the 1930's? Astounding Tales cost 20 cents an issue and had stories by the likes of C. L. Moore. Popular Science, on the other hand, just had wild and baseless ideas with fancy covers designed to sell copies. I'm trying to figure out the benefit of a blade-driven monorail, but I'm coming up empty. I'm equally perplexed by the rudder-looking tail at the back of the vehicle. I've had the good fortune to sit in the cab of a diesel-powered train and I know that there's an engineer, but no steering. Anyway, it's fun to look at and very Dieselpunk, so I thought I'd share.

The Yardstick of Protein...

November 6, 1944 and a new way of measuring protein is developed...the meat stick. How many meats of protein have you eaten today? Ad from Life Magazine.

Happy Easter Everyone!

What does Easter Sunday make you think of? Chicken sidecar races! Or at least chicks riding in egg-shell sidecars attached to a bunny. Or maybe...oh to hell with it, happy Easter.

April Full Moon: Hula Dreams

Ah, April in Indiana, a time when the weather definitely isn't exactly fit for grass skirts, though it does make us dream of the South Pacific, warm breezes, and the moonlight glittering on the turquoises water.

Hula Dreams was written by Lee Roberts was a prolific composer with possibly his most famous composition being Smiles. He would eventually become vice-president of QRS Music where he recorded hundreds of piano rolls under his own name and the pen name Stanford Robar. His partner (both on Hula Dreams and on Smiles), the partially blind lyricist J. Will Callahan, also contributed lyrics for the 1913 pop song Gasoline which will be our full moon song for the month of May when all of Indiana turns to thoughts of auto racing.

I wish I could have come up with the music for Hula Dreams, but nobody seems to have added it to the YouTube archives.

Everything New is Old Again - Wind Power (1923)

Harnessing the power of the wind has been around for centuries, but we're not talking about pumping water or milling grain here, we're talking electricity. In the present day you'll find lobbyists on both sides of the wind issue, those telling you it'll re-green the planet and bring back the do-do bird and others saying it's just hooey and is making cold slaw out of migrating birds and bats. The thing is, it's nothing new.

Case in point, the cover of the December 1923 issue of Popular Science Monthly. Right there in all it's illustrated glory is an image of a wind turbine producing electricity to power a distant city. This is nearly a hundred years before we'd actually get around to making the idea a reality. 

Happy April Fool's Day!

Happy April Fool's Day from the dancing cats and Fedora the Flounder!

Quote for April

The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

- Mark Twain