Popular Science, 1966 - "Electric Autos - They're on the way!"

Great news, citizens! It's 1966, and electric cars are almost here! When is "almost"? Non-specific shrug! Hooray! Please enjoy this complete article from the December, 1966 issue of Popular Science. Let's all get super cranked about the electric cars we'll all have in our garage as soon as 1970 or something!

Of particular interest is the fact that, in '66, keeping the car's battery warm enough was an issue, instead of the concern we now have keeping the batteries from overheating.

Also, we'll all suffocate by the year 2000. Read on!

Let's pause the tape for a second there.  Popular Science seems to be assuming that automotive technology would stagnate in 1966, and that cars would remain filthy and inefficient forever. In their defense, maybe they had little to no evidence to believe otherwise or something? Sure, but here in The Future, we have the benefit of Actual Data from the intervening decades to check their assumption. NOAA tracks this kind of stuff. It's kind of their thing. Los Angeles is a pretty polluted city with a huge traffic problem as bad as any city gets. So, what does the data on LA say?

https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/news/2012/119_0809.html

Hey, pretty cool. We're not dead yet. This is very likely due to the introduction of catalytic converters, which the editors of Popular Science wouldn't have had a clue about, way back in '66. Will electric cars become the norm? Of course, and they'll be great. However, PopSci's predictions about doom and gloom are just as questionable as their exciting predictions that we'd all have a wall-sized OLED television by 2005, and that they'd be so cheap that even the smelliest of hobos would be able to afford one (something I recall reading in a PopSci issue circa 2003 or so). Anything Popular Science says "will happen soon" should be taken with a massive grain of salt.

"You will drive 120 m.p.h. -legally"... BAH hah hahha! Oh man...

In 1966, Popular Science thought the legal highway speed limit would somehow climb to 120 m.p.h. Did you enjoy your hyperspeed commute this morning? Was your breakfast meal-in-a-pill delicious and filling? Lean back in your hoverchair and enjoy this complete article explaining how we did it.

"Electric Autos... They're on the Way!" ... in 1966.

Yep, in 1966, the electric car was an "any minute now" proposition. Well, five to ten years, if the Popular Science article is to be believed. So, your mom and dad must have had an electric car, then. How was it? Did you learn to drive on mom and dad's electromobile? Did they hand it down to you when they eventually replaced it with their hovercar in 1973? Please leave your nostalgic electric car memories down in the comments. I'm sure we'll all be able to relate to them.

Be sure not to miss the part about the best-at-the-time sodium-sulfur battery that had to be maintained at a temperature around 500 degrees at all times or it wouldn't work at all.

We now present the full article from the December 1966 issue of Popular Science in living color (all three of them- black, yellow, and sort of other yellow). Each page has been posted at the largest-size-Blogger-will-allow size of 1600 px. You know the drill. Click it to big it, baby. You're welcome!

Are The Beatles a Menace to our Kids? - The Lowdown Magazine, July, 1964

In July 1964, Completely Legitemate Journalistic Outlet, Reliable Source of Horrified Outrage at Sexuality, and Reliable Source of Sexual Content, The Lowdown Magazine blew the lid off the hideous plot to destroy our youth and undermine all of Western Civilization known as The Beatles.

First, the cover, unretouched and exactly as it ran in '64. The Lowdown would only be made less funny by any Photoshopped attempts to make it funnier. Admittedly, whipping cults are now required by the CDC to wash more regularly, so that's one debt of thanks we owe to The Lowdown.

We now present the complete Beatles Expose', for your scandalized enjoyment. You know the drill with images: click it to big it, baby.

"'Slingshots' Pace the Drag Strips" - Full 1959 Popular Mechanics article.

In 1959, purpose-built dragsters were kind of a new thing, and drag racing was very much a homegrown motorsport. Teams were experimenting with every aspect of the car's configuration, which is kind of fun to see in this 1959 article in Popular Mechanics. We now present the whole damn article.

Most conspicuously, these old dragsters placed the driver behind the engine, and often behind the rear wheels. As the article explains, this decision was made for reasons of weight distribution and traction.  In later decades, this decision was un-made for reasons of not having red-hot exploding motor pieces shooting into your face, as was often the case, among other motivations. See? Safety!

You may recognize Mickey Thompson's name as a record holder with his twin-engine car, mentioned toward the end of the article. The company he would later form still makes tires and wheels for all types of motorsports. Neat!

Anyway, there's also a 1959 documentary on the "exciting new sport of drag racing" at the bottom of the post, too - Ingenuity in Action. It's got exact music you think of, when dreaming of doing a pass in the high tens in your home built drag car: a sort of Holiday for Strings type of thing that was the soundtrack for everything in The Fifties, no matter how badass or potentially lethal the activity. It's frikkin' adorable. Don't miss it.

Popular Science, 1939 - Uncle Sam Fights a New Drug Menace... Marijuana.

Citizens, we face a new horror that is sure to destroy all of our Society. This horror is not the dreaded Nosebeetle or Wild Boars. It is an innocent-looking weed that is determined to crush all of humanity... if Uncle Sam gives up the Fight!

Please read, with all Terror, this complete report from the good pages of Popular Science Monthly, of May, Nineteen Hundred and Thirty Nine. It's grim reading, friends. I hope you're sitting down. We certainly hope none of this Indian Hemp finds its way into your Home.

Esquire 1959 - Letter form Christmas Village

In the December 1959 issue of Esquire Magazine, Joseph Wechsberg wrote an article describing the cool Christmas traditions of an ancient region of Austria. Freaky costumes and a night time parade made their holiday celebration more like Halloween - and therefore, better - than it is today.

The illustrations look like Maurice Sendak drew them, but the signature is a real puzzle. If any of you can help make out the name, everyone here at GO! Tower would be grateful.

UPDTAE: Alert reader MisterFancyArtPants_2 found out the artist's name! Thanks MFAP!

N.M. Bodecker 1922-1988 (the “N.M.” stands for Niels Mogens, though when asked he would say it stood for “Nothing Much” or “Never Mind”) was born, raised and educated in Copenhagen. He emigrated to the United States after World War II, where for many years his illustrations appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire and Holiday.

Anyway, here is the full article, complete with brilliant illustrations. Please forgive the problems on one or two pages, caused by the stubborn binding and the difficulties of pressing it down on the scanner and scanning it in two halves.

Also, because this was 1959, the author dismisses the beliefs of the participants as "Medieval mysticism", which is pretty much how people label something when someone else's mythology doesn't line up exactly with your own favorite mythology. Anyway, these illustrations would be perfect for this year's Phil Are GO! Pointy Tree Day Gift Tags. We didn't do them last year for some reason, but this year, it's on like Tron. Stay tuned.

You'll have to click each image to open it in a new window at readable size.