Historical Portents and Signs

[cahwyguy]

Today’s lunchtime theme brings together a number of articles, all related to interesting historical things:

• Who Shaves the Barber? An interesting character story out of Las Vegas about a barber who has been cutting hair in casinos for 38 years. This isn’t long enough to go back to the glory days of Vegas (1950s-1960s), but it is long enough to go back to the end of the mob era. This fellow started at the original MGM grand, and moved eventually to the Riviera.
• Portents and Signs. Two interesting stories about signs. The first deals with one of the original welcoming signs in Bakersfield — not the Bakersfield arch, but the “Sun, Fun, Stay, Play” sign. It relates how the sign was originally funded and installed… and how it faded away. The other story is out of Las Vegas, where the final Sahara sign and marquee (not the original 1950s Sahara sign or the 1970s replacement, but the last modern style sign) is being dismantled to make way for the SLS Las Vegas. More Vegas history disappears. [Here are more pictures of the SLS/Sahara remodel] About the only old Vegas left is the Riviera (the original 9-story building at the heart of the Riv); I think everything else is gone until you reach the Caesars/Circus Circus Jay Sarno era.
• Baby Stuff. An interesting piece from Mental Floss, looking at the origins of many of the baby products we use these days. So if you have ever wondered the origin of the stroller, binkie, disposable diaper, baby monitor, or other items… here’s your answer.
• Symbolic History. We often know the history of our alphabet, and I’ve written in the past about the history of some letters that used to be in the alphabet, but here’s an interesting one: The history of the “+” and “-” symbols. (h/t to Andrew Ducker for finding this one).
• Space History. One of the problem with old digital media is that, increasingly, we can’t read it. Here’s an interesting article about the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP). This project was started by Dennis Wingo and Keith Cowing in 2008. They obtained the original analog tape drives from lunar missions in the ’60s, which were literally covered in dust in a farmer’s barn, and they also got their hands on a complete collection of Lunar Orbiter analog data tapes that held a full set of all images carried back to Earth by the five spacecraft that flew between 1966 and 67. Funding for the project is drying up, and so they’re crowdsourcing funds on RocketHub. They’ve raised about 1/3 of their goal as of today, and they have only 5 days left.

P.S.: If you saw my post yesterday, you know I’m upset about the upcoming demise of Google Reader. But if you think I’m upset, you should see this guy (funny, he looks just like a former German leader).

Music: ¡Tre! (Green Day): “Walk Away”

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