Promise of a forgotten era

This is what the world was supposed to be like.

$ $ $ $ $ PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE (Nov, 1959)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: ads • aw yeah • design • happy mutants • illustration • Old school • wide

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Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

http://twitter.com/rvitelli Romeo Vitelli

The hokum artists selling those ads are still out there. They’ve just migrated to the Internet for the most part.
http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood

That’s what my world is like, where do you live?
Rich Keller

Whoever did the illustrations for these ads seems to have been influenced by the same Jack Hamm book that I got when I was twelve.
timquinn

I love it that the first thing he is advertising is a publication on making a fortune in mail order. I bet every item on the page was written by the same guy and would arrive in your mail box as a folded 8 1/2×11 mimeographed sheet of obvious advice. It is much like the internet, except paper and slower. Oh,wait . . .
- Ambiguity
  
  One of my good friends in college had a high-school job working for a guy who sold “how to get rich in mail-order” pamphlets over, well, mail-order.
  
  My favorite story was how they would drive into rich neighborhoods, jump out of the car, take a picture of the guy standing next to some random Rolls or mansion, and tear off. He’d use these pictures for the ads, proof of the efficacy of his systems.
Preston Sturges

My father had a bunch of the little blue paperback “International Correspondence School” books. They were about 70 pages and sized to fit in the pocket of your factory overalls so you could study electrical engineering on your break time. They were actually pretty good books.
Preston Sturges

I liked the ad that ran in the classified of the old “Science Digest” magazine that read “Resurrected Millions Will Farm The Sea Floor After Oceans Are Removed By The Whirlwind.” They didn’t ask for money, I guess it was just useful information.
Nash Rambler

I was going to post something smarmy about how the world IS full of dodgy scams, but too choked up with regrest that I am far too late to order “Super Ju Jitsu,” and thus am unable to “get tough double-quick.” The prostate gland disorder thing, well, that’s just gross.
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

I’m pretty glad that the world isn’t like that, because sites like instructables.com make it no longer necessary to give “$ $ $ $” for “practical”.
http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

And the link is 404
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Works for me.
  - http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones
    
    Unlike Joseph, Antonius knows the secret of success!
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      I’ve learned yogi, the art of self-mastery.
      - Shashwath T.R.
        
        Makes you smarter than the average Boinger?
http://www.markcrummett.com crummett

Someone took the “Make Money in Stock Market” and ran with it!
Boundegar

Needs more X-Ray Spex.
pebird

Finally, a good reason for a Retina display.