I almost forgot about it, but in exactly one week this blog will celebrate its fifth birthday! Well, it will be its fifth birthday, at…
CIPC #254: Bohn ad
Our subject for today is one of the stranger ads I have seen. It appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1952 and was apparently…
CIPC #253: The lone wolf spy hunt
During the course of the years, this blog has put the spotlight on a number of forgotten merchandises: The crime doctor, the Philo Vance series,…
CIPC #252: Chess in literature, the sequel
Long, long time ago — the world was still innocent then1 — I wrote a blog post about chess in literature. In it, I discussed…
CIPC #251: Vogue cover
Let’s continue our discussions of magazine covers. This time, we go all the way back to 1929. Vogue is already a well-established fashion magazine. Chess…
CIPC #250: John Bull 16-12-1950
John Bull apparently started his existence — life seems too strong a word for a fictional character — in an eighteenth century pamphlet.1 Since then,…
CIPC #249: Ogroff
If you are an avid reader of this blog, you know that I have seen a fair amount of god awful movies. You have seen…
CIPC #248: 8 out of 10 cats does countdown S20 E2
The origin of 8 out of 10 cats does countdown is a bit convoluted. The show Countdown, in which participants have to solve anagrams and…
CIPC #247: House of Frankenstein
By 1944, when House of Frankenstein was released, the Universal horror movies their monsters and their stars already had a reputation. And this movie had…
CIPC #246: Endeavour S4 E1, Game
Long after Morse there was Endeavour. It deals with Endeavour who was there long before Morse. I realize that that’s a rather opaque introduction for…