End of the Year, Not End Of The World

 

Yes, a strange year, dominated by numbers

• 366 Posts here
• Covid-19
• Tier 4
• 9 months Working From Home

But - gotta stay positive.   Thank you to all my millions and billions of readers.

Bonus - 

Never a Good Idea - Phoebus Nuclear Engine

 

Looking for a slide to post, this one caught my eye, and I tried to figure out what it was.  Some sort of reaction vessel,...but what about those missile/bombs on the right?

Ah.   The Phoebus atomic engines. Good Grief.   How could that be a valid idea?  And yes, the test firing went badly.

Bonus - Fungi is growing on the walls of Chernobyl's ruined nuclear reactor. They seem to absorb radiation and convert it into chemical energy for growth.

Le Grand Hotel

 

No info on this slide, but I have a suspicion that it might have been taken in France.

Still, I should be able to track in down - there can't be many "Le Grand Hotel" s in France, can there...

Bonus - 62 Cases of Jam v. United States

Upcycled Curtains

 

Up-cycling.

One of those trendy words for re-using stuff. Nowadays, if Money For Nothing  has taught me anything, it's a shorthand for trendy overpriced tat, but back in the early sixties, it was normal practise for ladies like Hildegard Froom (shown on the left)  to convert some well-loved curtains in to a .... trendy(?) dress for Church Socials etc.

Curiously, four years later, Hildegard would upcycle this dress into a stylish pair of curtains. Preoper recycling.

Bonus - For a SuperChristmas

Christmas Cake with The Wrinklies

 

family party 26-12-1963

Nom Nom Nom.   Christmas Cake.   Nom.

Bonus - My therapist told me that a great way to let go of your anger is to write letters to people you hate and then burn them. I did that and I feel much better but I'm wondering...

Do I keep the letters?

It's A Sign

 

Ha!    You were expecting a Christmas or Boxing Day themed slide, weren't you.

Well, that's not how my brain works.

And to be honest, I don't like the modern road signs as much as the old ones.

Bonus The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist

Live action original - and the animated remake.

Merry Christmas, One And All.

 What a shit year that 2020 has been.

t'was the Night Before Christmas

 

A visit to Santa's workshop

 

Santa, shamefully ignoring the Social Distancing Covid-19 rules, but then again, the Tiers system does not extend to The North Pole.

A surprising lack of snow around his house - Damn You Global Warming !

Bonus - Someone's Christmas arrived early. Sweet dreams

The Festooned Tree

 

Nice word.

"Festooned" - to decorate a room or other place for a special occasion by hanging coloured paper, lights, or flowers around it, especially in curves: The hall was festooned with Christmas lights and holly.

Tho' young Timmy seems shell-shocked by the occasion.

Bonus - Best summary of the recent POTUS election

"It's like when you're driving your car and you make a wrong turn. 

Your spouse tells you that you turned right but should have gone straight. 

Then the lady in the dashboard comes on and tells you "at the next opportunity, make a legal U-turn." 

That's what we did." 

---Garrison Keillor

OK, You can open just one present early

 

Christmas....boys ... presents ... nostalgia.

Bonus - 

  

The Simple Pleasures

 

As the kids of America prepare themselves for an avalanche of TV-advertised, battery-powered, internet-connected wallet-busting toys, let's hark back to the simpler happier days when a wooden hobby horse on wheels was the Best Christmas Prezzie EVER!

Bonus - Considering primate owning in North America? This may help.

A Trip To Niagara

 

Not to be confused with A Trip To Nicaragua. Back then, Nicaragua was an angry violent country, riven by political infighting and corruption, and America was a well respected oasis of peace in a troubled world. Oh how things have changed.

However, then as now, one of the annoyances of a trip to a Tourist Hotspot is the annoying stranger who always appears in the photo... tho' in this case, daddy photographer may just be capturing her shapely arse.

Bonus - At last, the Utah Monolith is opened.

My Dinner Companion

 

Photographing things when out for dinner is not just a modern thing. Instagram may have made it more common, but even back in 1971, it was being done.

Tho' back then, the dish that was being preserved was the young lady, not the food.

And no, I have not photoshopped a wine-glass out of he hand.

Bonus - Trump-related Billboard wars.

and an Aluminium Christmas Tree

 

These two lovely ladies pose beside the marvel, and symbol of the 1950's - An Aluminum Christmas Tree.

There's a surprising amount of back-story to aluminum christmas trees, and is used as a Trope in Film and TV.

Bonus "We analyzed all-cause mortality among adults ages 25-44 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We find that COVID-19 has likely become the leading cause of death (surpassing unintentional overdoses) among young adults aged 25-44 in some areas of the United States during substantial COVID-19 outbreaks."

Nice Tree

 

 A happy couple, in sensible casualwear, and a lovely Christmas Tree. I'm still unsure whether that's a real tree or a fake tree. It's very regularly arranged, but it doesn't have the fashionable (at the time) aluminum tinsel look.

Bonus - Well, it is the end of 2020... Scientists find two new species of fungi that turn flies into 'zombies'. At least it's far, far away in .... Denmark.

Bonus 2 - Didgeridoo playing as alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome: randomised controlled trial

Nice Vaulting !

 

I know that it's Tedious Tuesday, and  picture of a ceiling should fit the bill, but ...

Wow !

That is impressive.

Bonus - Sri Lanka only became an island in 1480, when a cyclone destroyed the land bridge connecting it to mainland India.

Beside The Reflecting Pool

 

A moment of calm. :-)

Bonus - 40 Days later - The world's reaction to the US Election

Mrs Consumer, Christmas 1956

 

The Christmas Selection Continues

...and I love this slide. The snugness of this suburban wife, the fake aluminium christmas tree, the copy of Consumer magazine, and the crowning glory - The opened present of a French Fry Cutter. Pure Suburbia.

Bonus - The Skeletons In The Lake

Christmas Decoration

 

A slide from 60-ish years ago, and proof that OTT Chrimbo Decs are nothing new. What does appear to be absent at the animated figures.   Yes, things were better in the past in this respect.

Bonus - How to Pass The Pepper While Social Distancing

Cortina, Water Tower

 

I should be clear about this - That looks like a Ford Cortina Estate (possibly a Ford Granada), and that's a water tower. Possibly located in Germany, from the car number plate.

People expecting a watertower in Cortina, Italy will be disappointed. That area is mountainous enough to negate the need for water towers. Send your requests for compensation to the usual place.

Bonus - Rotating but not moving

Paddleboat "The President"

 

Not every December blog post  is about Christmas. And not every post mentions Christmas.. such as this one...oh crap.

So, today we have the US paddleboat "President". Originally it was the Cincinatti, but, well, obviously that's a crappy name.

Bonus - Who needs digital sound effects?

The Christmas Onslaught

 

While "The Christmas Onslaught" would be an excellent slasher movie title, I am referring to the disproportionate number of slides of Christmas trees / presents / decorations that infect the slide collections.

Such as Little Jimmy Riddle here.

Bonus - 

Your Holiday Office Block

 

IF I was defending this slide, I'd point out that the Right Hand Brightness suggests it's the first slide on a new film, and the photographer was just just doing the LOAD - WIND - SNAP - WIND - SNAP setting up.

But, again, what a dull tedious slide to keep.  What looks like a 1961 Holiday Inn, modelled after a tax account form factory.

Bonus - 

Social Distancing - Arkansas Retro

 

Nothing to do with Covid-19, but Hank McDaniel had to keep at least one door, window or wall between himself and his mother Moira McDaniel (just visible inside the screen door.)

Not due to any disease transmission issues, bust because of Hank's chronic flatulence.

Bonus - On the subject of flatulence... Rudolf Guiliani.

Bonus 2 - Donald Trump's MASSIVE DUMP REMIX

L.B.J. at the House Burning?

 

I may have been mis-informed, but I believe that tis might be Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36thPOTUS, at an event where his political opponent Francis Xavier Gardener had his home knocked down and burned, before being written out of the history books entirely.

Not a very nice person, from what I've read about LBJ.

Bonus - Phew. 6th December....looks like I survived Krampusnacht.

A Whole Handful of Trouble

Cute, but trouble.  Probably not house trained, and needs a firm hand to control.

But enough of Edith. She has a couple of puppies to deal with at the moment.

Bonus - Not Wrong !

Bonus 2 - Still waiting for that delivery?

Four Hundred and One Years Later...

 

Happened upon this slide today and thought, "curses". If only I'd seen this in time for Thanksgiving.

But, actually reading it, led me down a path into the arguments over the first Thanksgiving.

Of course, the usual "Puritans" Thanksgiving story is pure hogwash, and this one may be as well. Though... wiki is supportive

Bonus : Arecibo Telescope Collapse 1/December/2020

Mr Smarty-Pants

 

Very...ummm ... Fancy.

Nice.

Bonus - No ... make-up and costume.

Bonus 2 - Cheese

A Rather Beautiful Rustic Church

 

In my collection of slides that are many pictures of churches. Actually to be brutally honest, there are far too many boring pictures of boring churches.

But this one, I really like. 

It's a nicely exposed Kodachrome slide, and the church itself is a Lutheran Church, built in 1924. Apparently

But the location .... that was a mystery. Until a migrating beaver told me to have a google for Jasper Church.  Bingo

Bonus - 

That Reminds Me of a Billy Connolly Joke...

 

In fact, the joke that introduced him to Britain.

The slide itself - Tedious and yet quite interesting.

Bonus - An anti-gay Hungarian politician has resigned after being caught by police fleeing a 25-man orgy through a window.

Bonus 2 -