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A cool tool in the hands of people who don't know how to use it generally becomes an ineffective tool. But before you go off to another blog and social media conference to get a crash course in social media best practices, see if you can't find that information online. And besides, what the geniuses tell you will work today won't work by next year, which is why they have that conference annually.

(I'll take, "Larger for the Click," Alex.) 

Image from the always stunning Shorpy.

The Ladies Love Coke and Smokes

Caption on Shorpy reads: July 1940. "Gas station in Benton Harbor, Michigan." 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. (Click for the massive)

If you like advertising, history, vintage crap, photography or you just want another cool place to waste time at as you put off that horrible assignment you're avoiding, bookmark that site or subscribe to the feed. The detail is always amazing. In the above scene, the restrooms are "registered" and apparently getting a radio installed in your car was a hot business back in 1940.

And it appears we are being watched from the garage by Major Mike Adams.

What a lurker.

Take Your Music With You!

A rolling turntable, radio thingy, so the Mrs. can sip on her purple stuff whilst she preps the food for her grateful crew, who are celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus with appropriate mirth and merriment.

Jollier

Original image from Shorpy, modified to the point of desecration by me, on a rainy day at work as I await the call for the pot luck lunch.

Where's the Glass and Stainless Steel?

Huge image (click for the large) of a graphic design business in Rosslyn, Virginia in 1926, from Shorpy.

Witness your roots, Creatives. Note that there are no fire poles, no canoes, no Eames chairs, no Macs, so Starbucks, no cupcakes, no social media strategists, no glass desks, no cubicles full of ironic juxtapositions, no emo glasses, no tattoos and no fauxhawks. All of the trappings of the modern design/advertising/marketing agency are missing. Probably because the concept of the "EVP of Global Creative" was still decades away.

It's just a bunch of people in smocks getting dirty doing manual labor. They had no delusions that they were making art, and they weren't making fake ads to submit to awards shows. If "Mad Men" was based in this era, it'd be a blue-collar dark comedy.

The Google Street View B Team

As in most workplaces, where the choice assignments get snapped up by the ass-kissers and those with seniority, I know there's a crew of Google Street View Roamers out there hoping that someday they get a decent task.

big

Original image from Shorpy.

Sweat Shop

Mucho Massive

Original image from Shorpy.

What is This Tweeting I Hear Tell Of?

I'm sure radio had its detractors in the early years, with people skeptical as to its use or advantages. Finally, Einstein spoke up and brought some sense to the new invention:

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

Hopefully as more people get on Twitter, the less the Twitterati can dictate what is or isn't proper etiquette as far as following and un-following or whether a person who uses Twitter is a Twitterer or a Tweeter. Someday the Twittersphere, like radio, will be fractured into specialties and sub-specialties. Actually, it's already happening and was in fact built for fractured use. We follow people who interest us, who share our interests or who are in our fields.

More and more of my Facebook friends are getting on Twitter, and every news outlet, politician, business, celebrity, and attention whore is on there along with you and me. Still, we will continue to hear comments like those below for a long time yet.

Click it and steal it like you always do.

Original image from Shorpy

And the Children Would Never Forget His Visit

Click for the mega

Original image is from Shorpy.