Scanning the Past
Earlier this week I decided to see if I could find any traces of my late grandfather’s office supply company, Red Tiger Products, on the Internet. To my delight, I discovered that the Smithsonian Libraries had twelve of his catalogs from 1951 to 1953 in their Trade Literature collection. I of course had to wield the power of social media to see if I could get an electronic copy of any of these catalogs and immediately sent a message to @silibraries. I was referred to instructional/reference librarian @Trina_SIL who told me that my grandfather’s catalogs had not yet been digitized but offered to see if she could scan a copy of one of his catalogs for me. By the next day, I was happily perusing Red Tiger Products Catalog 132 from 1951. Here’s a clip showing the company’s logo and my grandfather’s signature:
(Click Read More below to see a full spread from the catalog.)
I learned that the Smithsonian Libraries are currently seeking grants to support the digitization of their trade literature holdings. If you’d like to donate to these efforts, you can find more info about how to do that here. (Be sure to choose “Digitizing” from the donation drop-down menu.) For more information about the trade literature collection itself, be sure to check out @Trina_SIL’s blog post here.
Thanks, Smithsonian. You’re a true American treasure.
Five Predictions for 2012
Here are five predictions for 2012. Let me know if you think I’ve missed an important one.
- Jamie Oliver invents an organic sprayable cheese that sells for $15 a can at Whole Foods.
- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei finally lifts the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, only to immediately call for the head of “culinary rock star” Guy Fieri.
- President Obama, feeling the oats of his second-term election, names Carrot Top Supreme Chancellor of Prop Comedy.
- PODS’ stock price skyrockets as school districts around the country—dealing with unprecedented budget shortfalls—turn to the storage company to provide makeshift classrooms for overflow students.
- Kim Jong-un declares hi-top fade to be the official hair style of North Korea and puts Christopher “Kid” Reid on the 10 won bill.
The Other Half
Whenever I fly, I like to flip through the latest copy of Sky Mall to see what the other half is up to. Did you know that rich people, when they’re not at Illuminati meetings ruling the world, wear special helmets that simulate thousands of tiny fingers simultaneously massaging your scalp? (Maybe they wear them at meetings, too?) These well-heeled gentlefolk also have bars hidden inside of what appear to be antique globes. Should their fortresses ever be broken into, at least their Dalmore 62 single Highland malt scotch whiskey will be safe. And why do people think that wealthy people are all heartless Scrooges? As the photo below clearly shows, some take great pains to make sure getting in the back of the Hummer isn’t too stressful for Killer.
