Get Ready Mailbag: Being prepared while on summer vacation

Welcome to another installment of the Get Ready Mailbag, when we take time to answer questions sent our way by readers like you. Have a ques...

The Non-Accessible Grand Theatre in Kingston Ontario

The following video is of the make-shift ramp to allow wheelchair access onto the stage of the newly renovated Grand Theatre. Note how I ski...

The Carved and the Directional Curl

(Click on the images to see larger versions.) Source: American Hairdresser Beauty Shop Compendium 9th Edition.

Planning ahead is important for hurricane preparedness

If you could be any animal, wouldn't it be great to be a bird? You never have to wait in line for the restroom, you know the weather bef...

Sideburns

(Click on the image to enlarge.) Source: Practice and Science of Standard Barbering, ⓒ 1938-1958

Splendor Splendide

Yesterday the Archive had to shuffle along the shelves to allow in six of these beautiful little boxes. Complete with everything but the oil...

The Coronary Heart Disease Epidemic: Possible Culprits Part I

In the last post, I reviewed two studies that suggested heart attacks were rare in the U.K. until the 1920s -1930s. In this post, I'll ...

Pin Curls

(Click on the images to get a better view.) Source: Practice and Science of Standard Barbering, ⓒ 1938-1958

Play it safe outdoors this summer by being prepared

As the weather gets warmer and the days longer, we’re all drawn to the great outdoors. But exposure to the elements can lead to common injur...

Old Walls

I recently went on about the appalling 'W' Wall's Ice Cream identity, but singularly failed to show you how their tin signs once...

The Coronary Heart Disease Epidemic

Few people alive today are old enough to remember the beginning of the coronary heart disease (CHD) epidemic in the 1920s and 1930s, when ph...

Find The Fault No 12

I don't know about you, but I'm finding some of these puzzle pictures a bit tedious. Looking ahead in the pack of 20 I see far more ...

Hold Your Nose

Funny how the smallest detail can act as an aide memoire to all things past. I took one of my boys on a tour of the sights of my own childh...

Midsummer Night Dreams

(Click on the image.) Source: American Hairdresser, June 1946

Help the hungry, improve preparedness without leaving your doorstop on Stamp Out Hunger Day

On your way home from work today, take some time to stop at the grocery store and pick up a few extra items for those in need. You'll he...

Get Ready Mailbag: Swine flu

Welcome to another installment of the Get Ready Mailbag, when we take time to answer questions sent our way by readers like you. Have a ques...

Dihydro-Vitamin K1

Step right up ladies and gents; I have a new miracle vitamin for you. Totally unknown to our ignorant pre-industrial ancestors, it's ca...

Link: Retro Hairstyles for Dummies

Once again, another great link: Retro Hairstyles for Dummies I love that Sari has the updos from the Hairdo Handbook that we have here, but...

Clumber Lumber

Clumber Park is an ex-Ducal estate of 3,800 acres south east of Worksop in Nottinghamshire. The grand Palladian house, begun in 1760, has go...

Find The Fault No 11

Apart from reminding me of that old joke that ends with a newspaper headline "Nut Screws Washers & Bolts", there's not a l...

Pastured Eggs

Eggs are an exceptionally nutritious food. It's not surprising, considering they contain everything necessary to build a chick! But al...

Iodine

Iodine is an essential trace mineral. It's required for the formation of activated thyroid hormones T3 and T4. The amount of thyroid h...

Feather Halo

(Click on the image to open a larger version in a new window.) Source: Modern Beauty Shop, June 1942

Loded

A signpost out on the fens east of Cambridge. Having a kind of horrible ring-of-truth for our times I thought 'What's all that about...

Don’t let your tots miss their shots: Online tracker a handy helper

If you're a parent, you're no doubt familiar with the seemingly endless trips to the doctor to have your child vaccinated. Even if y...