JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

As it's New Year's Eve, may we offer this fine dining suggestion from the wonderful folks at Chef Boy-Ar-Dee? While I don't recall ever buying the Chef's sauce on its own, Amy and I devoured Mini Ravioli, Beefaroni, Roller Coasters, Mini Bites and all of their related canned pasta dishes. We loved canned pasta as kids, except for a misstep the Chef made involving "Papa Smurf's special sauce". Mom had to make sure one of us didn't receive more meatballs than the other. I probably lost most of my taste for Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee due to a disgusting university roommate who liked using it uncooked as a sandwich filling. Ettore (Hector) Boiardi (1897-1985) was a restauranteur in Cleveland who found take-out requests for his sauces so high that he opened a factory in the late 1920s to keep up with demand. Boiardi's products hit the national market just as spaghetti and others Italian foods became popular in American homes - his kits offered a quick, tast...

Now that winter's here (OK, officially it's still a day or two off), it's time to dust off seasonal drink recipes for your next soiree or ski trip. The fine folks at Dr. Pepper developed "the Boomer" to warm your spirits. Only your digestive system will determine just how devilish this concoction is. As one commenter noted when I posted this ad on Flickr, all that's missing are happy sweater-clad skiiers (it's hard to tell just what the stickman skiier on the right is wearing). Source: Playboy , February 1966 

Previously: City Hall After leaving City Hall we wandered around downtown for a few minutes, noticing the utter lack of life and ominous black smoke belched by a building close to where we parked. After lunch at a diner further up Main Street, we initially intended to check out the Darwin D. Martin complex designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Unlike City Hall, there appeared to be a lineup and we suspected we might not make one of the last tours. We headed to the Buffalo Central Terminal . Located east of downtown,the station was opened by the New York Central Railway in 1929 and remained in use as a passenger station until Amtrak pulled out in 1979. Two decades of neglect and stripping of artifacts by various owners followed until the site was turned over to the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation in 1997. Since then, Volunteers have gradually restored the site. There's a long, long way to go, though the work to date gives a sense of how neglected the site was. We s...

To mark the holiday season, a shot from my first Christmas, though some may argue I was around for Xmas '74 in embryonic form. This is a typical family scene from the first quarter-century of my life - Dad and I (or Amy when she arrived on the scene) doing something that amuses Mom. I'm pointing at something, perhaps training for my childhood habit of pointing down any road I wanted to explore on family drives. We lived in this house through my early teens, with the same layout up until we moved. The Santa ornament in the foreground hung on the tree for years and still swings on Amy's tree. This tree lasted for three decades, until the colour coding on the branch wires wore off...which weren't really necessary towards the end, as knew where each limb was supposed to go. Putting up the tree began with a trip into our large, slighty musty crawl space, where the Christmas decorations were buried back behind boxes of preserves, old football yearbooks and cheap myste...

Scenes from a Psychogeography walk through the Financial District after the first major snowfall of the year. The CN Tower in purple/magenta/pink mode, contrasted with fully-lit offices on the south side of King Street. Outside of Metro Hall, we gathered around the Eternal Flame of Hope , first lit by various dignitaries in 1996. The wind tried to snuff out the flame, but a hissing sound indicated this gas-fueled light wasn't going down without a fight. No fingers were singed while testing how close one could get to the fire. Further east, an Enbridge team was working on a steaming manhole, the likes of which I've usually seen only in Detroit. We wound our way down to the Bay Street entrance of BCE...er...Brookfield Place (I'm still not used to the name change). Atop the illuminated walkway was Vibrant Communities in Focus ( warning: link goes to Photosensitive site in general ), an exhibit of works highlighting the effects of Ontario Trillium Foundation grant...

Some people claim to have out-of-body experiences while lying in an accident-induced state of unconsciousness. In today's ad, our friend Jack Lewis had an out-of-diploma experience. Perhaps it wasn't just thoughts of a career change and a desire to avoid further head traumas that led to Jack's moment of clarity. Perhaps those boxes that knocked him out cold were filled with textbooks. Days of working on the line at an educational publisher may have subconsciously swayed Jack's decision. Or perhaps we're really stretching this possible scenario behind Jack's life-changing moment. At last report, Jack took early retirement after 36 years with the firm, the last 33 spent happily with the chirpy coworker in panel 8. ICS regularly advertised in a variety of magazines and comic books. The company is now known as Penn Foster Career School, though the Scranton address remains the same. Lingering question: while Jack lay delirious in the infirmary, did the godd...

" Fashions by Botany 500 ." For years, this acknowledgement was a staple of the end credits for game shows. While other clothiers provided wear for emcees, Botany 500 remains the butt of most jokes. Today's ad was originally shot during auditions for a failed ABC game show, Masterpiece , with neither of these two gentlemen becoming the next Bob Barker or Bill Cullen. The set featured mod colours with a Jackson Pollock-inspired flair. Two teams competed, each consisting of a contestant and celebrity (the pilot featured Vincent Price and Alastair Cooke). Two rounds of questions revolved around the arts. The winning team moved on to the final round, which featured an obscure piece of art or classical music by a well-known artist, presented by a leggy model. Audience testing revealed the show was too highbrow for network television, though a version with Ivy League professors as the "celebrities" briefly aired on PBS in 1970. Not wanting their model shots to go...

Tyler 8-7100. WE DO GOOD WORK . If you grew up within antenna or cable distance of Detroit from the 1960s onward, there's a good chance that phone number and slogan are burned in your brain, thanks to Belvedere Construction. I don't recall seeing today's YouTube find when it originally aired, though there were so many ads featuring Mr. Belvedere (aka Maurice Lezell) they may have blurred in my brain. Note the painters cap and the bumper sticker on the belly of the robot. Perhaps its mouth doubled as a credit card reader or spit out estimates for good work. According to a 2002 Metro Times article , Lezell named his company after both a street in Detroit and the character played by Clifton Webb in a popular late 1940s movie series...which later inspired the 1980s sitcom. While searching for more of the classic Detroit commercials, I stumbled upon this odd club for kids... I suspect that admitting that you were a member of this fan club was a one-way ticket t...

A month ago, I took a carload down to Buffalo to check out the city's first cross-border edition of Doors Open. Time only allowed us to explore two buildings, but both proved to be wise decisions on a day full of surprises. The first surprise came when we reached the border. I had prepped the others, in my usual semi-paranoid state, what to expect when crossing the Niagara River. Turned out none of this was necessary, as we had a border guard who didn't seem partially cybernetic. We handed her the Doors Open program, which she thought looked interesting. No strange questions were asked and we passed through without any strange looks. Coming into downtown via Elmwood, we parked near Niagara Square, which was devoid of life. The combination of grey skies, solitary monuments and wide, empty streets left us feeling like we were in a zombie movie ( 28 Days Later was tossed around). We expected a creature to shuffle down the street at any second. The monument in the square ...

Another day, another find from the fabulous world of late 1960s fake facial fuzz. The top half of this page features the largest Masculiner ad I've seen, in garis...glorious living colour. This one must have been aimed at young teens, unless the older audience for Archie comics in 1969 was unusually large. This is also the only time I've ever seen these ads paired with women's wigs. Eager readers could now race to the nearest go-go bar to test out their new look. While reading this ad, we suggest listening to mod or soulful 60s instrumentals - how about Hip Hug Her by Booker T & The MGs? Anyone who still has a warehouse full of these wigs in black might be able to make a few bucks peddling them to Amy Winehouse lookalikes. Pep began in 1940 as a superhero title, headlined by the patriotic Shield. Archie made his funnybook debut in issue 22 and soon took over the title, which ran through 1987. Click on the "fake hair" tag below for more fake facial fu...

Wanting to catch some of the Hallowe'en spirit, I went for a neighbourhood stroll along with Dylan and Nadia last Wednesday. Our route took us through Rosedale, St. Jamestown, Cabbagetown and Church Street. This pumpkin snuck into the candy bowl early and paid dearly for it. One of the many well-crafted gourds across Rosedale. The neighbourhood seemed to be divided between streets bustling with activity and streets with an invisible fence keeping trick-or-treaters. While we kept to streets full of decorations, we'd peer down others where one wouldn't even know it was Halloween. Left: This skeleton excited a large group of trick-or-treaters - "look, he's wearing Dora the Explorer underpants!" One kid rambled on for at least five minutes in disbelief. In terms of views on Flickr, this is the most popular picture of the evening, though I'm not sure if I want to explore the reasons too deeply. Right: A witch who made an error in her flight path...

This pretty much sums up my day - kind of slumbery, except for a short roadtrip into the 'burbs in search of pickle curry spice mix (it was an excuse). When I was kid, I was fascinated by hotel directories, mainly due to the maps. We usually had the latest Holiday Inn guide kicking around, as it was the chain we tended to stay at. We often picked them up at the downtown Windsor location, which burned down ages ago. Located on the Detroit River, one had to drive down a long ramp to get to the lobby. It also included an Odeon movie theatre, which we rarely went to (the last movie I saw there was Lawnmower Man , which wasn't my choice but since friends were going, why quibble?). This campaign appeared in early 1980s directories, usually as bookends. Source: Sports Illustrated , November 30, 1981

A small sampling of the tombstones listing the fates of famous writers in the window of Type, across the street from Trinity-Bellwoods Park. Of the authors selected, I almost saw Kerouac's final resting spot in Lowell, Massachusetts on a roadtrip a couple of years ago. Almost, but not quite . Why am I picturing Berryman's demise as a Warner Brothers cartoon? Photo taken October 28, 2007 - JB

An interesting invitation? or Beware red stuffed creatures bearing free beverages? Stouffville Market, October 13, 2007