JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

At first I laughed at the absurdity of this ad’s claims: turning into a misanthropic wretch because of an ill-fitting shirt. Then I remembered I’ve been guilty of yelling in anger or cursing my physical shape whenever a shirt that fit well on its first wearing shrank after being washed. This is especially true if the shirt cost more than my usual apparel budget. There have been times where I’ve been ultra-paranoid about purchasing clothes out of fear they would shrink by 50% or, if it was a type of garment I knew was prone to a water-induced diet, remain in an enlarged state suitable for a clown costume. In other words, the man in the ad deserves his moment of cheerfulness. Source: the Toronto Daily Mail , January 23, 1892

How to turn a nice sketch of a turn-of-the-century gentleman into a depiction of a hideous victim of venereal disease: assign the printer to randomly drop ink over a second copy and switch his fancy tie into a bow tie. The victim in today's ad looks not so much like a tragic sufferer of syphilis, but more like an Edwardian conception of a zombie or a gentleman whose portrait was painted by Basil Hallward .  Source: the Toronto World , May 21, 1902.

There once was an ad Whose opening was mad And celebrated poetry so bad It made us kinda sad But not as much as Vlad Who tried to write a poem about plaid While sprawled in his pad Next to his sleeping dad For a recent literature grad He did not think his prose was so rad. Source: Now , March 30, 1989.

Do not go gentle down that good road... Photo taken on Royal Oak Road, west of Little Britain, September 14, 2011.

With the backlog of material sitting here, it takes a while before I get around to thoroughly browsing magazines I've picked up on a whim because they could be useful for future research or a tossed-off blog post.  When I finally get around to reading them, the notes previous readers left behind jump out at me. Such is the case with today's feature presentation, taken from an early 1950s issue of Better Homes & Gardens I purchased in Herkimer, NY during a roadtrip to Boston last spring.  I was walking off lunch from a nearby diner (a massive Denver omelette, accompanied by biscuits served with gravy that didn't resemble wallpaper paste) along the town's definitely-seen-better-days main street when I stopped in a quirky antique shop. Unlike similar establishments, the prices weren't going to break the bank — the magazine was one of several items I purchased for a buck apiece. Took a quick flip, saw its potential, tossed it in the trunk, and rediscovered it ...

Construction continues on the ground level of the Toronto Reference Library . Coming during 2012: a new browsery, expanded gallery space, and a branch of Balzac's . Also coming in 2012: a return to regular posting on this site.  Photo taken December 28, 2011 .