Buying the New Yorker 1986 - page 82

Audio-Forum is not only still around, they still have precisely the same logo! They also still have the multiple cassette tapes in the polyvinyl case. I can still hear the noise that those things make when you open and close them. Of course, if you insist, you can get CDs and some CD-ROMs.

I do have to give them some credit: Look at all the languages you can learn from these guys. To hell with French, you can bone up on your Chocktaw! There are three different tapes you can get for your Chocktaw learning, including this:

Choctaw Singing allows you to hear the blending of two very different cultures as Charley Jones sings some Christian hymns, as well as the Choctaw Warrior's Song and the Meditation on Death, both sung on the Trail of Tears. He will entertain you and touch your heart as he provides a unique glimpse into the culture of the Choctaw Nation, then and now.

The reason why I actually and honestly find this so delightful is that there is no way this is being marketed to some travelling corporate sales rep.

So let's get this straight. You spend the money to fly off to St. Thomas in the Caribbean. So why would you want to spend spend a bunch of extra money on a guest house that has a small private pool fenced in by high walls with sliding doors off of the bedroom... Scratch that. I just figured it out. Pavilions still have the same deal. If you have trouble with the pool, maintenance is available on request.

"X-C" skiing is "Cross-Country" skiing. I used to go cross country skiing when I was younger. One year I actually participated in the Birkebeiner. I was drunk. What could an X-C skier want? As I recall, I wanted a rest room. I'll bet that The Inn on the Common has one.

I honestly don't recall smocks being in fashion in 1986. But then I wasn't very "fashion forward" at that point so I might have missed it. Anyway, moleskin is a term for cotton fabric that has a fuzzy texture that (theoretically) is similar to the fur of a mole. I'm most familiar with the sticky back variety that is meant for foot troubles but enjoyed by drummers who use it to dampen their skins. Thinking about that makes the fashionibility of that smock seem all the more improbable. It also doesn't help that it looks like a straight-jacket. I think David Morgan agrees. There's nothing similar for sale at his website now.

This is one of the sorts of things that I was hoping to find on this adventure. Yousuf Karsh is one of the most well known portrait photographers of the Twentieth Century. Here is a small selection of the things Karsh of Ottawa is famous for. They left out this one of Winston Churchill. Pretty impressive, no? Now have another look at the ad. It's pretty understated, considering that he really didn't need to be advertising at this point anyway.

The next ad is another sort of thing I was hoping for. Are your neckties too wide? Send them off to be taken in! Round about 1992-93 or so you'll be sending them back to be let back out again. Astonishingly, these folks aren't in business anymore.

I think this ad is cool. Just get three friends, go off to Lancashire and get into someone's car and go. If you Google the phrase "Gartside Tours" you'll get a bunch of hits for "left-wing-inspired post-punk British rock group, turned mainstream pop music project," Scritti Politti, as it is led by a gentleman who goes by the name Green Gartside and they are just wrapping up a big tour. I think it would be great to have him drive me and a few friends all over the place. Somehow I don't think that's the way it worked.