Ultra-Violet By The Roomful
Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.
You’re going to have to click to enjoy this slice of American marketing history. Then you’re going to have to click again to see the absolutely awesome fine print. What are we selling here? The latest (as of 1950) innovation in lighting, brought to you by the enterprising minds at Westinghouse. What this has to do with a spooky chalk-line drawing of a classroom is slightly beyond reach, but the rainbow is there to draw your attention to the wonderful rays of … well … here’s a bit of the copy:
Everybody needs ultra-violet for health. Everybody likes ultra-violet for tan. Most everybody gets too little …
It’s a new kind of sun lamp: Flourescent. It’s long; it’s tubular; it bathes a wide area with cool, low-level but effective ultra-violet.
Yep. Flourescent lighting, back when it was new and hip and just as good as the Sun itself … and before anyone noticed that flourescent light makes humans look ever-so-slightly cadaverous.
In other news, a co-worker of mine — brilliant girl, ought to have her own blog (this is a hint, yes) — offered me some candy she acquired from Australia. Not sure how it got all the way over here, but that’s not the point. These were Life Savers. Musk-flavoured Life Savers. At the time, some other officefolk had just arrived and so they lingered to see my reaction. I was leary. The mottled pink ring smelled slightly familiar. So I popped it in my mouth and pondered. Then it hit me:
These things smell like they taste, and they taste like Junkman’s Daughter (the trendy shop in Little Five Points) smells. Think patchouli mixed with vinyl, something velvet, several hundred candles, and other notions that don’t bear mentioning.
Of course, maybe the best description came from one of the anxiously observing co-workers. “It tastes pink.”
I agreed, but added, “Pink, sure. But not Sanrio, Hello Kitty pink. This is more like, you really ought to be 21 before you eat this candy pink.”
