Fun Stuff...

Found a couple of old advertisements...

Bird cards! Yeah, all kids wanna collect Bird Cards! And that Flycatcher looks SO damned happy. I guess when you're a kid getting Shredded Wheat for breakfast, birds cards are about the best prize you can reasonably expect.  I can just see some little advertising exec, crushed, sitting in his darkened office with his head in his hands, wondering why it didn't work. It seemed so fool-proof.


Then there's this one, from the late 50's:

Just look at that hen gobbling down that Jello. I can safely say I doubt very much if my chickens would EVER touch Jello. And they eat anything.

But Hickety's hep, all you cats.

Notice It Says, 'EXPECTS'...

...you don't have a choice--Uncle Sam is bluntly, flat-out telling you During World War I, This Is How Things ARE These Days, Bucko. Ah, for the days of telling it like it is!

Uncle Sam is right, though, and this ad would look just as natural in any magazine today. Everyone would be MUCH healthier and happier these days if they had a small Victory Garden-type vegetable garden and ran a few hens in their backyard.

Your kids would learn responsibility and respect for living things in animal husbandry, and Hell, add a rooster and you've got a little 'Circle of Life' thing going with baby chicks. The kids would also take an interest and pride in growing their own food, which would increase self-confidence. The chickens eat the garden waste/table scraps, provide bug control and fertilizer for the garden. The garden in turn feeds you and the chickens, and you get exercise, stress relief and family bonding in tilling, planting, weeding and harvesting the garden, not to mention the health benefits of growing your own fruit, vegetables, eggs and maybe even meat, if you go that route. NOTHING is healthier than home grown. Chickens also have individual personalities, provide entertainment and make great pets--something lots of people don't realize.

I'm starting to see more of a grassroots return to backyard gardens/flocks, here's hoping the local cities get a clue and lift stupid ordinances against keeping chickens. Our economy could only benefit from people working to provide a bit of their own table fare.

Really?

Who thought this was a good idea? I'll bet someone at the ad agency is howling right now. I know that when J. and I simultaneously spotted it the other day on the freeway, we burst out laughing so hard I almost drove off the road. The ad in itself is creepy, anyhow--the guy has been using this cartoony version of himself since the early 80's, and is still running the same live ad of himself from the same era, with just bad, fresh overdubbing. It's very Dorian Gray.

Oh, I think you WILL be beat, if southern Californians get even the slightest chance. Slowly and with great enthusiasm and vigor.