Questionable Advice
LightNews LightNews
banner
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Questionable Advice
@questionableadvice.bsky.social
68 followers 60 following 56 posts
History nerd and collector of vintage advice, etiquette tips, advertisements, recipes and weird bits of history. A frequent victim of the Cat Distribution System, book lover, believer in human rights

https://questionableadvice.tumblr.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
questionableadvice.bsky.social
The Mentor: A Little Book for the Guidance of Such Men and Boys as would Appear to Advantage in the Society of Persons of the Better Sort, by Alfred Ayres, 1884

“Fisticuffing? I say, how terribly vulgar and middle class.”
Block of text: If a man boasts that he could worst you in a set-to, answer that you think it very likely as you have no experience in fisticuffing; that you have never struck any one and should hardly know how to go to work to do it.
December 6, 2024 at 11:38 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
~ Book Notes periodical, 1913

I love this ad so much. I wish I could be friends with Annie E. Rider so we could drink wine together and she could show me how to make shirts with a Durability Approaching Perpetuality. Also, I would place many Orders for Buttonholes.
Advertisement from 1913. Text reads: Gentlemen's Shirts of the Finest Material. The Best Possible Fitting. The Finest Private Work and a Durability Approaching Perpetuality. Orders Taken for Buttonholes. Your Money Never Went so Far In Shirts in the World Before. Annie E. Rider, 17 Almy Street.
December 4, 2024 at 7:09 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
~ San Jose News, June 18, 1932

Kids this days with their sleeping fad!
Newspaper article from San Jose News, June 18, 1932. Louis Sonheim and Aaron Holtz were backing an ordinance for daylight delivery of milk because their slumbers were interrupted in the early morning hours by noisy milk trucks. Commissioner A.L. Barbor got up and gave the following impassioned speech: "This sleeping business has become a fad with people who have nothing else to do. I only get four or five hours of sleep a night and I'm on deck every morning. There's no sense in sleeping eight or nine hours."
December 3, 2024 at 5:51 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
People, please consider the humble carp. It's easily digestible. Also it can be cooked in such a way as to remove the muddy taste. Catch the carp! Buy the carp! Make carp jelly! Give it for the holidays! Keep it as a pet! Wear it as a hat!

CARP!

Brought to you by the US Bureau of Fisheries, 1911.
Poster from US Department of Fisheries, 1911 encouraging people to eat carp. Lists several facts about carp and encourages everyone to catch it, eat it, cook it properly and eat it.
December 1, 2024 at 3:10 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
~ Correct Social Usage: a Course of Instruction in good Form, Style and Deportment, by Eighteen Distinguished Authors, 1906
Text reads: Don't discipline your family or growl at the table. Many men and women who should know better appear to regard the announcement of dinner as a declaration of war, and fight through every course, making an hour that should be pleasantly anticipated as a time of happy reunion a dreaded misery for every member of the family circle. From text titled ~ Correct Social Usage: a Course of Instruction in good Form, Style and Deportment, by Eighteen Distinguished Authors, 1906
November 28, 2024 at 3:57 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Whittier News, November 27, 1911

113 years ago today: Whittier Stocks for Holidays are Complete and also Adequate.

Get your adequate gifts in Whittier and then get your smooches under the mistletoe
Ad from the Whittier News, November 27 1911. Shows a couple kissing and a large number four. Text reads: Shop in Whittier. Whittier stocks for holidays are complete and are also adequate. Four weeks to Christmas. The early bird gets under the mistletoe first. Buy those gifts quick.
November 27, 2024 at 5:48 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
~ The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness; Florence Hartley, 1872

Good advice for anyone hosting American Thanksgiving this week. Or any dinner, really
Block of text from a book titled The Ladies' Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness by Florence Hartley, 1872. Text reads: Dinner Company. Etiquette for the Hostess. As the time just before dinner is very apt to be tiresome, you should bring forward all the armor against stupidity that you possess.
November 26, 2024 at 3:52 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
~ The Handbook of the Man of Fashion, by the author of “Etiquette for Gentlemen”, 1847
#grammar #vintageadvice

(Yankee: an American or specifically an American from the North)
Text block reading: That style of language which society pronounces vulgar, and which grammarians call impure, arises less from the use of new and unauthorized words, than from the employment of old words in the wrong senses. For example, the word 'guess', when properly applied, is a good English word; it becomes vulgar only in its misappropriation. Use ita hundred times a-day in its right sense, and you are a genteman; use it once improperly, and you declare yourself a Yankee.
November 24, 2024 at 2:59 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Readers Startled by Male Librarian
~ Beaver Valley Times, November 1, 1946
#libraries #librarians
Copy of an article published in the Beaver Valley Times, November 1, 1946 Title: Readers Startled by Male Librarian Take if from B. J. Caldwell, Pomona's first male librarian, it's no easy task for the reading publoc to become accustomed to a man librarian. Caldwell, holder of a bachelor's degree in library science from the University of Southern California, had been on the job only a few days when a little girl entered the library. Loaded with books, she hoisted them to the loan desk, looked up for the first time and saw Caldwell. She let out a whoop and fled from the building, crying, "Mommie, it's a man." Caldwell succeeded Miss Sarah Jacobus, local librarian for 40 years before her retirement. "When I answered the phone," he said, "a lot of people would hang up, thinking they had the wrong number because a woman hadn't answered."
November 22, 2024 at 4:00 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
~ Punch magazine, England, January 1, 1959
Cause and Effect table for the Villain, Hero and Heroine from Punch magazine, England, January 1, 1959. Cause: Blow on head with blunt instrument. Effect on hero: small lump. Effect on villain: If in penultimate chapter, death. Otherwise, loss of consciousness, lasting until heroine has been released from room full of crocodiles. Effect on heroine: assailant stumbles, instrument grazes cheek. Cause: Fall over edge of cliff. Effect on hero: winded. Effect on villain: dashed to pieces. Mask falls off, revealing identity. Effect on heroine: Fall broken by mossy ledge at 100 feet. Sprained ankle.
November 22, 2024 at 3:08 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Today in the Disturbing Ads Department: the Beretta Minx, 1968.

“I am 22. And very petite. … You don’t have to be a big muscle man to pull back my slide”

Gun ads: blurring the line between sex and violence for at least 56 years
#vintageads
An ad for the 1968 Beretta minx gun. Picture of the gun with a thought bubble saying take me along. Text: I am 22. And very petite. My size is actually one of my greatest charms since I tuck so easily into your pocket or purse. And I'd love to spend some time with you. Take me along and I'll keep you company for plinking or protection. Once cute thing about me is that my barrel tilts up at the touch of a button. Lets you chamer my first round and start shooting like quick! (You don't have to be a big muscle man to pull back my slide). My magazine, also push button, holds 7 rounds. Or use me for a single shot. Get me. Minx .22 or for a little more punch my big sister, Jetfire .25. Or for a beautiful brochure featuring me and all my brothers and sisters -.22 .25 .32 .380 .9mm calibers - write Dept 2 GA 5. J.L. Galef & Sons, Inc. 85 Chamber Street, N.Y. Sole US Representative for Beretta pistols
November 21, 2024 at 3:16 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
~ Cosmopolitan, v.49 June-November 1910
#vintageads

Does your boss have laser eyes? Use your Knox Hat to distract him and protect yourself!
Black and white advertisement for Knox Hat from 1910. A man is standing in front of his boss' desk and holding a Knox Hat. His boss is staring at the hat and the ad shows a line-of-sight from his eyes directly to the hat.
November 20, 2024 at 5:30 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Picture of a mid-century modern living room with the caption: "Oh, Thomas, it's lovely. It'll be just like living in an idealized 1950s that never existed but we insist the Country return to."
November 19, 2024 at 10:01 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers. A Manual of Flornithology for Beginners by Robert W. Wood, 1907
#books
A page from a book with a poem titled The Parrot. The Carrot. The Parrot and the Carrot we may easily confound, They're very much alike in looks and similar in sound, We recognize the Parrot by his clear articulation, For Carrots are unable to engage in conversation
November 19, 2024 at 9:48 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. (4/20)
#bookchallenge #booksky
📚💙
Cover of a book called The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs
November 19, 2024 at 8:32 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
~ The Pleasures of Ignorance, by Robert Lynd, 1921
#quoteoftheday
Quote from Robert Lynd 1921: Galileo was forbidden to be curious about the moon. One of the most difficult things to establish is our right to be curious about facts.
November 19, 2024 at 4:13 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
The Executive Coloring Book, 1961
www.sadanduseless.com/color-my-und...
Page of a coloring book showing a man sitting at a large desk. Caption: This is my desk. It is mahogany. Important people have mahogany desks. My walls are mahogany, too. I wish I was mahogany.
November 18, 2024 at 9:52 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. (3/20)
#booksky #bookchallenge #books
📚💙
Picture of the cover for Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull
November 18, 2024 at 7:59 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Considering a career change? Cal Husselman has some plain, practical advice for you

~The Southern Poultry Guide or Forty Years with Poultry: A Plain Practical Treatise on the Care and Management of Poultry for Practical People by A Plain, Practical Poultryman; Cal Husselman 1908
#poultry #history
Picture of text from a book published in 1908 advising you that if you want to live without working do not engage in poultry raising. Be a tramp.
November 18, 2024 at 3:09 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. (2/20)
💙📚
#bookchallenge #booksky #books
Cover of a book titled Time and Again by Jack Finney
November 17, 2024 at 8:59 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Stop buying those lewd pianos, people! Won't someone think of the children? (1903)
A 1903 black and white ad for pianos from the George P. Bent company. Pianos guaranteed to be noble in tone and chaste in appearance
November 17, 2024 at 8:56 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
#booksky #books #bookchallenge
💙📚
1/20
November 16, 2024 at 5:59 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Looking for a dentist that doesn't use Arsenic to mutilate humanity? Check out Dr. J. A. Kennicott and remember to Take The Elevator

~ Evanston Directory; Evanston, Illinois; 1880-1881
#vintageads #dentists
November 16, 2024 at 4:04 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Always wear your cowgirl dress, Pam. Nobody likes Carol anyway

– What Will I Wear? by Helen Diehl Olds, 1961
November 15, 2024 at 11:46 PM
questionableadvice.bsky.social
Obviously, I have been eating the wrong kinds of salad

~ Harper’s Weekly, January 1865
November 15, 2024 at 3:32 PM