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Thread: Strange things you've read

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    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Default Strange things you've read

    Thanks to all the great public domain stuff out there on the Web, I recently read a wonderful booklet from the early 20th Century called "Farming with Dynamite". This fine publication of the Dupont corporation is a gold mine of information about how high explosives are the solution for just about every problem around the farm. (At least, genuine, accept no imitations, "Red Seal" brand dynamite is.)

    Apparently you could buy the stuff with no licence or training and set about clearing your stumps, breaking up your subsoil, or whatever. Not even a warning about "to be used for bona fide agricultural pursuits only. No liability accepted for illegal fishing or settling scores with your neighbours."

    What are some of the stranger publications you've read?

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    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    My mother used to have a book which delighted my brother and me many years ago. It was called something like How to Raise a Boy and had been written in the 1950s. It had wonderfully sage advice, such as at what point a mother needs to start being cool and distant to her son so that he can grow to be a man, and--our personal favorite--the section answering questions about sexuality.

    One of these questions was, "What does it mean, 'homo make a pass'?"

    We also learned that masturbating turns boys into homosexual rapists and being homosexually raped turns them into homosexual rapists, too. Knowing this, I'm not sure how there are any straight men left.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

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    Oliphaunt
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    My mom has a Red Cross home-nursing book from, I think the 1930s. It has advice on everything from hand-washing and bed-making to caring for measles sufferers and delivering babies. I wish I remembered more specific details. I do recall that there are an astonishing number of uses for newspapers.

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    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Oh, that reminds me, it was actually "Red Cross" brand dynamite ("Red Seal" was probably a natural slip since I'm a notary public.)

    "Red Cross" dynamite is, of course, that much more awesome.

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    Elephant Myglaren's avatar
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    The Whole Earth Catalogue, bought many years ago and dragged all over the place, not seen now for several years, wonder what happened to it?

    Also my mother's "Modern Woman's Home Doctor". How my brother and I survived at al is a miracle.
    Last edited by Myglaren; 09 Jul 2012 at 10:27 AM. Reason: Dumnity
    Lightly Seared On The Reality Grill

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    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    This book extolling soviet science, I think it was written in 1959. It claimed to have been published by Penguin but it seemed more like something that the Communist Party in Britain or the US would have put out. It had some amazing photos in it, proto-cosmonauts and pictures of those dogs with other dog's heads grafted onto their bodies, which apparently weren't mock ups, were real, if ghoulish, experiments. I think it was called something like Soviet Science in the 21st Century. It was basically predicting the Soviets would overtake the west, apparently a not too uncommon fear at that juncture.

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    Member Elendil's Heir's avatar
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    I just read The Secret State by Peter Hennessy, about British Cold War espionage and planning for World War III. Chilling stuff, and yet all with a bizarrely "veddy British" detachment and cool wit. Ministry of Defence experts estimated that just ten Soviet H-bombs could devastate the country, but in the early Sixties Khrushchev told the British ambassador (perhaps exaggerating, as he was sometimes wont to do) that several dozen had been targeted on the UK. Yikes!

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    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Elendil's Heir View post
    I just read The Secret State by Peter Hennessy, about British Cold War espionage and planning for World War III. Chilling stuff, and yet all with a bizarrely "veddy British" detachment and cool wit. Ministry of Defence experts estimated that just ten Soviet H-bombs could devastate the country, but in the early Sixties Khrushchev told the British ambassador (perhaps exaggerating, as he was sometimes wont to do) that several dozen had been targeted on the UK. Yikes!
    Have you ever watched The War Game from 1965? Beautiful fake documentary about a nuclear bomb being dropped on Kent. And of course there's Threads too, from the '80s, absolutely bleak look at a middling nuclear attack on Britain.

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    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Latest and strangest: "Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-Catcher after 25 Years Experience". The memoirs of a Victorian...well, it's there in the title, isn't it.

    Something that creeped me out -- normally he'd try to catch the rats live, so that he could sell them for various entertainments. It was a serious blow to his income when the do-gooders abolished Rat-baiting.

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    Oliphaunt
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    People did weird things for fun before TV was invented. Although I'd probably be interested in the memoir.

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    Member Elendil's Heir's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by The Original An Gadaí View post
    Have you ever watched The War Game from 1965? Beautiful fake documentary about a nuclear bomb being dropped on Kent. And of course there's Threads too, from the '80s, absolutely bleak look at a middling nuclear attack on Britain.
    I've read about the first, and have seen the second. Both were memorable.

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