November 3, 2021

"I said #@!%@**# the kids in '67, let's do something for us."

I love this ad for the Village Voice that appeared in the NYT on June 11, 1967, "Now that you're tried Psychiatry, Self-Improvement Books, and Ceramics, try The Village Voice. It's cheaper." In choosing the form to fill out to subscribe, you're given 6 choices and encouraged to use the one that's the real you""

Why am I reading that this morning? I was thinking about yesterday's elections and the effect they may have on the Democrats' ambitious spending programs, and it got me thinking about the controversy — which I remember well from half a century ago — about the insanely high cost of building the Superdome. 

I went to the Wikipedia article on the Superdome just to find the price — $135 million — and got distracted by "[Sports visionary David] Dixon imagined the possibilities of staging simultaneous high school football games side by side and suggested that the synthetic surface be white." 

I had to check the source, and it was in that 1967 issue of the NYT: "How would you feel about white?... A white playing field and an orange football with luminous paint. When a quarterback throws a pass, we turn the lights out while the ball's in the air. Wild?"

Things were so much wilder then. Let's talk about Youngkin now.

51 comments:

Heartless Aztec said...

Let's talk about Winsome Seats the new Lt Gov of Virginia!

shereen said...

Democrats need to push back publicly against their progressives, but they are afraid to. The fact is that the Republican Party views represent more of the country than what is currently touted as the Democratic Party views. They've been able to survive because of the disproportionate support they have in the media and the education system. And by cheating. That may be shifting somewhat, and it wouldn't take a lot of a shift to significantly impact election results in favor of the Republicans.

tim in vermont said...

Since you gave permission to talk about Youngkin, here is a quote from Buzzfeed: "Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe's loss in a state Joe Biden won big in 2020 shows how tricky the midterms could be for Democrats."

If by "tricky" you mean Democrats are forked, sure. Even if McAuliffe somehow "finds" the votes he needs, it was a +10 Biden state.

How is that poll that the Democrat governor in NJ was "up by ten" looking now? Pollsters have been screwing over Republicans for years, and Republicans have zero interest in talking to pollsters.

tim in vermont said...

White works for ice hockey, now that the broadcasts are hi def, it looks really good, but I think there is something primordial about the green in football -- Wyoming's blue field is an abomination-- just like there is the "snow" in ice hockey. When a football field is covered in snow, it's a special treat.

tim in vermont said...

The Wine Mom giveth, and the Wine Mom taketh away.

Thanks Lincoln Project!

tim in vermont said...

LOL, Fox was dead last to call VA for Republican. Let's pile that on top of their prediction that the Democrats would add to their House Majority in 2020 and wonder when Fox is going to clean house. JKLOL, as long as they keep Chris Wallace, you know their first priority is to keep the Tech Billionaires and the Democrats on their side.

John henry said...

Those racist, misogynist, knuckle dragging shits in Virginia just elected a black woman to be lt governor.

What's racism coming to?

Not only that but she is a marine who is not afraid to be photographed at the range holding a REALLY SCARY LOOKING assault rifle.

Congrats to her and youngkin and the good people of Virginia.

Let's go Virginia!

John LGBTQBNY Henry

Big Mike said...

Let's talk about Youngkin now.

He won. So did his running mates. And it appears that Republicans flipped seven seats (needing six to retake the House of Delegates). The Democrats are going to have to sit the teachers unions and the other CRT pushers down and say “You cost us this election and if you don’t square around you’re going to cost us many more next year.” Do they have the guts to fo that?

I hope Ciatterelli holds on. But Democrats can always discover 1200 votes in someone’s trunk.

wildswan said...

One thing I note reading those Village Voice ads is that the main presumption is that the Village Voice will set one free from stifling conformity. But now the left in NYC is the epicenter for conformity. The words are different - conformity v. cancel culture. But people were much clearer that the Village Voice was an escape from a stifling society that that it was Marxist. In this sense the Youngkin campaign was the pendulum swinging back. The left is in power and it is trying to force conformity - never mind to what - the point is it is trying to force one-size-mind-fits-all-thought onto people. Simple words, such as "Let's go Brandon", can be intensely controversial these days such that on hearing them a reporter for the AP charged a plane cockpit while in flight and tried to get in at the pilot. As a reporter, she is used to trying to force conformity and her reflexes kicked in. There were policy issues in the Youngkin election - parental right above all - but I think many who are not parents felt they had a stake in "education, not propaganda," a wider cultural issue.

tim in vermont said...

Almost 100% of the vote in in New Jersey governor's race, and the Republican has a tiny lead. One that can easily by overcome by late shenanigans, but still. New Jersey, the state that elected guy Senator that the FBI accused of being a pedophile, until the little girl 'recanted.' Since the girl was trafficked, I am pretty sure that she didn't have a lot of agency in that recantation, or whatever you call it.

rehajm said...

‘I don’t know much about art, but I know I don’t like vegetable soup labels.’

Heh. Not much of an eye for investments, either…

tim maguire said...

tim in vermont said...LOL, Fox was dead last to call VA for Republican.

It's a mystery. FOX is the right-wing network, and yet their polling is consistently pro-Democratic outlier.

michaele said...

Just a random observation...when Terry McAuliffe came out to give his supporters a pep talk sometime after 10pm, he looked oddly ghoulish. His face was so white and yet his lips were unnaturally red. He gave off kind of a Joker /clown vibe and it didn't help when he ended his appearance with some twirls and his weird dance moves. Younkin seems so normal in comparison.

Kai Akker said...

---Things were so much wilder then. Let's talk about Youngkin now.

I see what you did there. Wildness in 1967 was proposing an orange football. A few dared take LSD. Wildness in 2021 is letting huge populations flood in across the border and handing many of them checks for half-a-mil. Sending money from the Treasury to everybody in the country. Locking down most of the nation and destroying people's livelihoods and businesses they had spent years building.

Oh yes, Youngkin won. Quelle surprise.

Kay said...

I recently read an article from the Village Voice from the late 70’s, and was pretty shocked by the writing. The writing felt slightly experimental, but I think its most apparent quality was that it felt very unprofessional. It reminded me of how kids used to write in their self-published, photo copied fanzines in the 90’s. I couldn’t imagine anything like thar being published today by a paper of this stature.

mezzrow said...

...wouldn't we all rather be humming Schoenberg with Soupy Sales on a quiet street in the Village in 1967? I know I would.

Between the Braves and the state of Virginia, it was a good night.

Howard said...

The next Clintonista that needs to be flushed down the rabbit hole of history is Kamala Harris. That's gonna happen when Trump wins in 2024, Allah willing.

We have to burn down the Democrat village to save it.

Achilles said...

Now we get to watch Republicans in Virginia sell out again.

Will anything really change?

Everyone in Virginia wants the federal money to keep flowing into the state but they haven't figured out that you don't get to have federal money without the attendant interference from leviathan.

This will only end when Engineering and HVAC Repair defeat HR.

Jamie said...

That Village Voice campaign is fantastic - it was Facebook fifty years before its time! Only a six-choice algorithm, but wow, they could really steer the coverage once they saw which coupon was pouring in. I wonder which one it was.

I wonder if anyone at VV gave thought to producing different editions for different geographical areas based on those coupons, too. I can't imagine they could have envisioned producing and distributing different editions within a single market - you receive the "topless bathing suit, the other girls reject me now" version and your next-door neighbor receives the "everybody at my office looks exactly alike" version - but wouldn't that have been something...

gilbar said...

Sears, who joined the U.S. Marines as an 18-year-old Jamaican immigrant, said black voters should be shoulder-to-shoulder with the GOP when it defends gun owners, especially armed women in urban areas. “What am I going to do? Tell these black women, ‘You can’t have guns’? I don’t think so,” said Sears. “When I’m waiting for the police to come, what do I do? How do I protect myself? I don’t know karate.”

https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/updated-republican-winsome-sears-virginias-lieutenant-governors-office/article_7e618415-b946-5a46-8221-bad72f3ab3c1.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1

gilbar said...

tim in vermont said...
Wyoming's blue field is an abomination--


Admittedly, i had a Traumatic Brain Injury, and might not remember things right,
But...
Boise State is NOT Wyoming, it's Not IN Wyoming, it's not ANYTHING Wyoming

Go Cowboys!

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

"Let's talk about Youngkin now."

AA in 2024: "Some commenters are so condescending. I did a post about Youngkin when he won. Don't blame me if you're too lazy to go find it."

gilbar said...

listened to WOI this morning (Iowa Public Radio) 'cause i to listen to them cry about Virginia

Heard an interesting phrase they used about a new Des Moines politician
They referred to her, as having gotten interested in politics;
Through "Last Years Black Liberation Movement"

So, update your style sheets; BLM now stands for the "Black Liberation Movement"

Critter said...

‘The worst it can do is get me fired so I can get a job where you know which washroom to go to.”

LOL. This is so funny on so many levels.

MadisonMan said...

One thing I hope that springs forth from the Virginia results: The End of Clinton Toadies.

Iman said...

It ain’t over until Stacey Abrams squeals.

Ann Althouse said...

"New York 14, New York"

That was before zip codes.

Ann Althouse said...

"... where you know which wash room to go to"

Prescient!

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

"Let's talk about Youngkin now."

Judging just from the blogged headlines this morning, you would think that what happened in Virginia yesterday, and the predictably racist reaction to it from the Left, is ho hum.

I guess that last part actually is ho hum.

tim in vermont said...

"Boise State is NOT Wyoming, it's Not IN Wyoming, it's not ANYTHING Wyoming"

It's an old trick to say the wrong answer because you are sure to get the right answer. I think even one of Jane Austen's characters used it in one of her novels.

tim in vermont said...

"... where you know which wash room to go to"

I guess I am showing my age since I totally contextualized it to the '60s obsession with "The Executive Washroom." Well, that's why vampires give up, they live so long that their brain just has no more room for new info. Or at least that was the plot device of "Interview with the Vampire."

Big Mike said...

Seen on Instapundit:

Q. Why did the Dems lose in Virginia?

A. The fake ballots were printed in China and they’re all still stuck on a ship waiting in LA harbor!

rehajm said...

This Person said...
"Let's talk about Youngkin now."

AA in 2024: "Some commenters are so condescending. I did a post about Youngkin when he won. Don't blame me if you're too lazy to go find it."


Prescient!

tim in vermont said...

I am naively hoping that Youngkin released the Charlottesville trial information which the Democrats put under seal for some reason.

Joe Smith said...

It was the golden age of counter-culture advertising...some pretty groovy stuff going on back then...and (God forbid) actual free speech : )

Mark said...

What kind of expletive deleted takes up eight characters?

Roger Sweeny said...

I wrote upon it
Return to Sender
Address Unknown
No such number
No such zone.

No such zip code just doesn't work.

mikee said...

Ah, the 60s. As a callow youth under the age of 10 that decade, I enjoyed Mad Magazine more than The Village Voice. And Mad needed no advertising beyond itself .

mikee said...

Ah, the 60s. As a callow youth under the age of 10 that decade, I enjoyed Mad Magazine more than The Village Voice. And Mad needed no advertising beyond itself .

Dan Farmer said...

While the FIRST BLACK WOMAN was giving her victory speech for winning a state wide office in Virginia, only Fox News covered it live. MSNBC and CNN both ignore the speech completely.

Winsome Sears = Immigrant + Black Woman + Mother + Marine

How does Intersectional Math work?

Rabel said...

It's almost like he wrote that song about you.

But that's based on my understanding of the lyrics, which is likely flawed.

Sebastian said...

"I love this ad for the Village Voice"

They were good. Once upon a time some lefties had a sense of humor. Who knew?

traditionalguy said...

Trump’s guy won. Hillary’s guy lost. That shows another tipping point where Soros style vote counting fraud fails to steal an election like it failed to in 2016. Hmmm.

Darkisland said...

Blogger Howard said...

The next Clintonista that needs to be flushed down the rabbit hole of history is Kamala Harris. That's gonna happen when Trump wins in 2024, Allah willing.

See Howard, we don't always disagree.

Except here we disagree on timing. Harris is gone before the end of the year. To spend more time with her (hypothetical) family.

This will make way for our current President Emeritus to return.

John LGBTQBNY Henry

Darkisland said...

In 1967 the Village Voice was a sort of alternative paper. Not as alternative as the East Village Other, Berkely Barb Screw or that lot but alternative enough so that the suburban white moms out in Tarrytown could feel like they were sticking it to the man.

That seems to be who all 6 ads are pitched to.

I do like the concept and the ads themselves. Very creative.

John Henry

gilbar said...

Roger Sweeny said...
I wrote upon it
Return to Sender
Address Unknown
No such number
No such zone.
No such zip code just doesn't work.


Just to show, that i HAVE recovered most (well, many) of my memories...
ZIP code STANDS FOR Something. I had to look up the IP part, but
Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code.
I was pretty sure that was what the "Z" stood for

Darkisland said...

Blogger Big Mike said...

A. The fake ballots were printed in China and they’re all still stuck on a ship waiting in LA harbor!

Not so farfetched. There were reports last week that the USPS had lost a shipment with a fairly impressive number of absentee ballots.

Lots of Trumpistas work in the Post Office. But I duppose it could have been accidental.

John LGBTQBNY Henry

Narr said...

135 million $US used to be a lot of money.

And 4 $US for a year of the VV? Cheap at half the price.

Howard said...

John Henry:. I wish I had your optimism Kamala Harris gets the boot this year. I don't think the DNC feels the multiple bludgeonings it has taken since 2016. They're convinced it's just a flesh wound because their insulated bubble is still intact.

Iman said...

We had a quarrel
A lover’s spat
I found a new girl
But she’s short, cross-eyed and fat

Lurker21 said...

Maybe carrying The Voice to work will help me get ahead. The worst it can do is get me fired so I can get a job where you know which washroom to go to.

If only you knew, dad ...