Author: Uncle John

Gas Pump Globes and other “Petroliana”

While performing an important search for an article one day—okay, I admit it, it was this morning, and I was bored, and I put “pergle” into Google just to see what would happen, you caught me!—I found this blast from the past: Pergl Gas Pump Globes. Remember those?

“Gas globes are spherical glass signs that sat atop gas pumps in the first half of the 20th century, advertising a specific oil company or brand of gasoline. Generally made from a ring of metal with a lens mounted on either side, they were produced in various shapes (like the Shell clamshell) and innumerable designs.

The purpose of gas pump globes was brand identification for drivers at a distance. Lighting wasn’t as good on gas stations as it is today. Sometimes all a motorist could recognize driving by was the gas pump itself lit up, and the globe glowed so they’d know what brand of gas was available. Post World War II, pumps started getting smaller, and by the 1960’s, it was unusual to have a globe.”

Pergl makes reproductions, but there are of course lots of dealers in actual antique globes, and over at OldGas.com, “The Gas Station & Auto Service Collectibles Web Site,” they have a huge gallery of photos of vintage globes.

Brewery Workers Strike: No More Drinking On Job

We can’t tell if this story is funny…or hilarious:

“Scores of Carlsberg workers walked off their jobs in protest Thursday after the Danish brewer tightened laid-back rules on workplace drinking and removed beer coolers from work sites, a company spokesman said.

The warehouse and production workers in Denmark are rebelling against the company’s new alcohol policy, which allows them to drink beer only during lunch hours in the canteen. Previously, they could help themselves to beer throughout the day, from coolers placed around the work sites.

The only restriction was ‘that you could not be drunk at work’.”

Happy Anniversary, Beermerica

Today, April 7, marks the 77th anniversary of the beginning of one of the most raucous 24-hour periods in American history. It was on this day in 1933 that Congress officially modified the Volstead Act, better known as the National Prohibition Act, which in 1919 had made it illegal to manufacture, sell, or transport any beverage containing more than .05% alcohol. The modification rose that to 3.2%, and, as the day neared, the breweries around the country that hadn’t been driven out of business in the dry, 14-year period (they survived by making drinks like root beer and ginger ale), readied for what would become one of the wildest national parties in American history:

New Release: Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The World’s Gone Crazy

Introducing the new edition to our Bathroom Reader library:
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The World’s Gone Crazy.

CraZy, BiZArre, SuRReal, SHoCking—there just aren’t enough adjectives in the dictionary to describe all the strange people, places, customs, conspiracies, and science awaiting you in this all-new edition. So put on your tinfoil hat and plunge into…

  • The Lady who married the Eiffel Tower and the guy who shot a firework out of his rear
  • Parrots that hunt sheep, the panda that ate a zoo visitor, and snails that shoot “love darts”
  • The “killer” Norwegian heavy metal band and Hollywood’s biggest crybabies
  • The government’s secret plan to poison the sky
  • Human-animal hybrids, demented dentistry, and bringing the dead back to life
  • Tales of ghosts, aliens, elves, and the giant people who live inside Mt. Shasta

….and much, much more.

Click HERE to purchase.

Uncle John’s 2010 Census Random Drawing Winner

You thought we forgot, right? Well, we didn’t. It just took us a long time to go through all the answers and process the massive amounts of data about you and your households. The consensus here at the BRI is that the census was a success. Without further delay, we would like to announce the randomly selected winner of the Uncle John’s 2010 Census…

Crystal Elmer: You are the winner!!!! We have sent you an email. Please email us back with your address and choice of book.

We also want to take this moment to confirm what some of you already suspected. Sadly, Uncle John will not be appearing on America Idol. Although, we do hope that one day our April Fool’s will actually become a reality. Until then, go with the flow!

Suicide-Committing Grasshoppers

Just found this on the intertubes. It’s a fascinating (and creepy) YouTube video about nematomorpha, parasitic creatures more commonly called “hairworms.” We wrote a short piece about them in Uncle John’s Triumphant 20th Bathroom Reader (2007, p. 172). An excerpt:

Tests on grasshoppers that had contracted hairworms by drinking water containing hairworm larvae revealed that the lavrae feed off grasshoppers’ insides and grow until one takes up most of its body cavity. When that worm is ready to reproduce, it secretes a protein concoction that affects the grasshopper’s central nervous system, mimicking messages to its brain. The messages drive the grasshopper to water, where it doesn’t stop for a drink…it jumps in and drowns. It is effectively induced to commit suicide. The worm, which by this time can be three times the length of the grasshopper, then crawls out of the carcass and swims off to find a mate.

Yum!

Here’s the video:

Related Extra: A fungus that brainwashes ants into sacrificing themselves…for the fungus.

And this just in: Yay toads!

Periodic Table Printmaking Project

This is just too cool:

Ninety-seven printmakers of all experience levels, have joined together to produce 118 prints in any medium; woodcut, linocut, monotype, etching, lithograph, silkscreen, or any combination. The end result is a periodic table of elements intended to promote both science and the arts.

Example:

Tin
 by Natalia Moroz

About the Element
For Tin, a silvery-white metal, the chemical element of atomic number 50. (Symbol: Sn), I pictured The Steadfast Tin Soldier from the classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson.

About the Print
 I also added more tins on the background. It’s a four color linocut, gray, red and blue printed using the jigsaw method, overprinted with black. Printed with Daniel Smith oil based inks on white Rising Stonehenge paper.

UNCLE JOHN’S CENSUS 2010

Everyone in the United States is required to answer the questions on this important official document by April 1, 2010. And that includes Canada.

Please cut and paste any or all of the following questions into a comment below and answer accordingly. Comments will be placed in a large virtual hat on April 1, 2010, and one winner will be drawn from said hat. Winner will receive either an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas or a free book, whichever makes our accountants happier. Read. Set. Go!

Happy Possible Birthday, Pillsbury Doughboy

The Pillsbury Doughboy, the advertising mascot of the Pillsbury Company, was introduced to the world on this date, March 18, in 1965. At least according to some trivia lists. Others say it was November 7, 1965. Pillsbury, apparently, says they have no idea. We here at the BRI are going to go with today. Why? Because it’s today, and we had to do something.

And we mostly want to give our regards to “Poppin’ Fresh” because without him—and the Michelin Man—we would never have had the “Stay Puft Marshmallow Man,” from 1984’s Ghostbusters. And for that we are very grateful.

Extra: From the first link above we found something that not even Uncle John knew: The voice of the original Pillsbury Doughboy was played by Paul Frees—the same guy who did Boris Badenov of the original “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.”

Happy Birthday, Arnold Layne

Today is the anniversary of the 1967 release of the very first song by the great British psychedlic-rock (and so much more) band, Pink Floyd. The song was Arnold Layne, written and sung by Syd Barret. It’s about a guy who steals women’s clothes from washing lines and wears them. He is unfortunately caught doing this, and “doors bang, chaingang.” Poor Arnold. Wikipedia has quite a bit of information on the song here.

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