Author Archive
March 21, 2014 by tomdalzell
Murals – Not Struggle, Not Pride
This mural is not here anymore. The former Dutch Boy paint store is now Au Coquelet. Just south of this mural there used to be a small shop that made buttons. They made many of the early United Farm Workers buttons. In the late 1970s I went there with a couple friends and asked if […]
March 16, 2014 by tomdalzell
Berkeley Historical Society – March 27, 2014
Tom Dalzell dalzelltom@gmail.com Quirkyberkeley.com
March 10, 2014 by tomdalzell
Bedrock Theme Parks
The Flintstones came on air just as I started 4th grade (we called it C Form). There was a big buzz about it. I watched religiously for a couple of years. But then I moved on. Others have not. They have built Flinstones theme parks, based on the city of Bedrock where Fred and all lived. […]
February 28, 2014 by tomdalzell
Accordion Ads
Gabby had collected and then gifted to my friend an impressive folder’s worth of accordion ads, comics, etc. No judgment. No prejudgment. Here they are: There were two more pieces of ephemera in the folder which a note saying – “More to come.” Animals playing accordions. God save us. Gabby just doesn’t know […]
February 27, 2014 by tomdalzell
Tip-Top
This started innocently enough. Tip Top Liquors at 3012 San Pablo. A cool sign. But – then – without warning – a rabbit hole! A rabbit hole that turns into a black hole. Oh no! Tip Top. A word. A good word. Let’s see what our friends at OED have to say about tip-top. As […]
February 26, 2014 by tomdalzell
Reduplication
I like words. I write about slang. And so I headed down the tip-top rabbit hole with gusto. And then found this rabbit hole within the rabbit hole. It is hard to convey how far off the mark I am getting. What I have done here is to construct a list of words and terms […]
February 26, 2014 by tomdalzell
Christian Album Covers
Gabby sent my friend four cartons of record albums. He labeled the boxes “Big Hair/Bad Suits Christian Record Album Covers.” Here are photographs of the albums in the first of four cartons. My friend, who was already taxed by my long list of reduplications, had a hard time with all these wholesome people. And […]
February 23, 2014 by tomdalzell
Tip Top Bread Promotions
Tip Top bread engaged in prolific promotions. They offered cardboard jigsaw puzzles, toy guns, and most of all trading cards, sometimes in the loaf and sometimes mailed with proof of purchase. The very obvious trading cards were baseball cards. But other sports as well: Curly Neal of the Harlem Globetrotters! How quirky is that???? […]
February 23, 2014 by tomdalzell
Tip Top Bread – the bread
Tip-Top made a number of bold claims about their bread. My favorite is the claim shown below – that a person could enjoy a healthy diet eating one orange and all the spongy white bread they want and – nothing more. Don’t get me wrong. I have my share of fond memories of spongy white […]
February 20, 2014 by tomdalzell