misc

Is there any doubt that, had just a few things in history played out differently, this would be available for your mobile phone today? I wonder whether there is an equivalent for the GLBT crowd or fat people. (I’m thinking of more-or-less accepted forms of outright bigotry, not suggesting that blackness is like fatness.) This ad ran in the June, 1961 issue of Ebony. Here’s the text:

TRAVEL WITHOUT EMBARRASSMENT
No More Embarrassment • No More Discrimination
KNOW BEFOREHAND:

• Where You Will Eat
• Where You Will Relax & Play
• Where You Will Sleep
• Where You Will Be Welcomed

TMC GUIDE’S 87 pages of cheerful and helpful information will give you TRAVEL PIECE OF MIND. Your trip will be a happy one. TMC GUIDE covers U.S.A., CANADA and CARIBBEAN ISLANDS. Lists over 4000 Hotels, Motels, Resorts and places of interest. You will be delighted with this wonderful GUIDE. Complete list of States which have Civil Rights Laws.

Send $2.00 postpaid (Sorry, no C.O.D.) to:

WALTER L. LOWE, PRESIDENT,
TOURIST MOTOR CLUB INC., 6 E. GARFIELD BLVD.,
DEPT. E-6, CHICAGO 15, ILLINOIS

ATTENTION AGENTS—1 doz. travel Guides cost you $12.00. Can sell quickly for $24.00—100% profit—Order Now! We pay postage.

The fact that this existed within my parents’ lifetime is kind of amazing. I went looking for more on the Tourist Motor Club, and found this from the September 25, 1958 issue of Jet:

Chicagoan Publishes Book He Hopes Will Die
A Chicago businessman, who publishes a new travel guide to help Negro tourists avoid Jim Crow restaurants, hotels and public travel accommodations, said he hopes for the day that no one will buy the book. Walter L. Lowe, prominent South Side insurance broker and president of the Tourist Motor Club, said the TMC Travel Guide, 1958-1959 lists establishments in the U.S. and abroad where Negroes can be served with dignity, courtesy and warmth. Mr. Lowe said he hopes a need for the book will soon disappear.

There is also this, from page 143 of The lost city: the forgotten virtues of community in America by Alan Ehrenhalt:

For $20 a year in 1957, a black family could join an organization called the Tourist Motor Club. What they received in return was a list of hotels and restaurants where blacks would be allowed inside the door, and a guarantee of $500 in bond money in case they found themselves being arrested for making the wrong choice. “Are you ready for any traveling emergency—even in a hostile town?” the Tourist Motor Club asked in its ads, and not unreasonably. “What would you do if you were involved in a highway accident in a hostile town—far away from home. You could lose your life savings—you could be kept in jail without adequate reason. You could lose your entire vacation fighting unjust prejudice.”

Whew. It’s been a crazy week. Your mother and I have been taking turns for a couple of weeks now, one of us picking you up and bringing you home, the other staying at work until 10, 11, 12…. On Thursday you went to spend the night at Maddie’s house so we could both work. (We ended up being at our respective offices until about 1:30am.) You’ve been a champ about it, and we appreciate it.

You’re such a big kid these days. There’s a lot I’d like to describe for the record, and I’m having a hard time knowing where to start. We’ll come back to that.

Music. We have been listening to music in the car lately. Via last.fm, here are the most-played artists in the past week:

1. David Bowie
2. The Knife
3. Iggy Pop
4. Air
5. Boards of Canada
6. Queen
7. Portishead
8. Sufjan Stevens
9. Van Halen
10. Massive Attack

News. President Obama canceled the space program. Or something. I’m sure that you’ll know all of this by the time you read it here, but I think this is a good time for a brief recap. Our nation first went to space in the 1960s. We were having some insecurity about whether we were the superest superpower, and we were worried that the U.S.S.R. would get into space first and either drop bombs on us or else just make us look like jerks. So we rounded up all of our top Nazi scientists and made the space program. And it was good.

Since the 60s, we’ve been kind of goofing around. We landed some people on the Moon (and brought them back home), made a space station in orbit with international partners, and put up some very useful satellites. The best of these satellites are part of the Global Positioning System, which lets me search for nearby Starbucks locations when I’m in a strange neighborhood.

But the central point is that space so far has been a huge disappointment. There have been no sexy aliens, no quirky parallel universes and absolutely zero pitched laser battles. And over the same time period, we have done a really good job of making these things up in the forms of TV shows and major motion pictures. Until we have reached the point where the space program is really not necessary.

Floridians and fanboys are going to be upset about the funding cut. But Floridians and fanboys are always upset about something. They’ll have to face the facts, and the facts are: (i) space is not actually cool; (ii) the space program is lousy economic stimulus; and (iii) our economy is about to do one of those numbers where the stuffy university dean climbs sputtering out of the swimming pool, sees something shocking and then loses his balance, arms pinwheeling, his mouth and eyes comically wide, as his center of gravity moves slowly back, back, back until he’s back in the pool again.

Gotta run.

Sg,

That sound sampled in that one song is the sound of a dial-up modem connecting. “Dial up” was a way of… You know what — nevermind. This will not be on the test.

That’s great and all, but is it really worth it if it turns one in four kids into hollow-eyed soul stealing minions of the dark lord? I’m just saying we have to think of the risk reward ratio.

(And yes, I’m talking about the guy on the right.)

If you haven’t already, check out Obiter picta. It’s a collaborative photo blog (or five parallel individual photo blogs, depending on how you want to look at it). Sometimes there’s some interesting and unplanned synchronicity among the posted photos. And when there isn’t, you can always click the “random 5” link to see one random photo from each participant.

The text is from a 1943 industry guide on hiring women, which can be found here. The images are via Feministing, Webphemera, Oddee and Sodahead.

1. Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they’re less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn’t be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.

2. When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy. It’s always well to impress upon older women the importance of friendliness and courtesy.

3. General experience indicates that “husky” girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

4. Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit, but reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.

5. Stress at the outset the importance of time the fact that a minute or two lost here and there makes serious inroads on schedules. Until this point is gotten across, service is likely to be slowed up.

6. Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they’ll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.

7. Whenever possible, let the inside employee change from one job to another at some time during the day. Women are inclined to be less nervous and happier with change.

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.

9. Be tactful when issuing instructions or in making criticisms. Women are often sensitive; they can’t shrug off harsh words the way men do. Never ridicule a woman - it breaks her spirit and cuts off her efficiency.

10. Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women. Even though a girl’s husband or father may swear vociferously, she’ll grow to dislike a place of business where she hears too much of this.

11. Get enough size variety in operator’s uniforms so that each girl can have a proper fit. This point can’t be stressed too much in keeping women happy.