These Waterman ads are something else

[Waltz For Zizi]

What's with Waterman and naked ladies ads from the 70's? or is this a french thing?

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

No earthly clue.  Especially since the pen looks like something that they'd be marketing to women (It's pretty slim looking in the image...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[carola]

Obviously they had a very "creative" advertising agency.

 

"Waterman announces the arrival of rounded shapes." Mmh... let´s see... rounded shapes... how about we put a naked woman on there? -- Good good.

"A pen made of massive silver by Waterman? Les années folles are back." Mmh... les années folles, the "crazy years", the 1920s, flappers... oh, wait, how about we put a naked woman on there? -- Good good.

 

I suppose this is more or less how it happened.

[lamarax]

These are both typical uses of the female form in:

1. a 'futuristic' (and quite sexist I'm afraid) identification with the 'modern', 'slick', 'perfected' and 'desirable', all prevalent instruments in the 80s (European?) visual communication/advertisement language [cf. vaporwave aesthetic].
2. an obvious reference to classical motifs^*; you'd be surprised of how much official imagery (that is, dominant ideology) relied on the depiction of 'nekkid wymyn'. Coins and whathaveyou. Blame it on the Renaissance, the French Revolution and the bourgeoisie in general 😛
3. Oh, and:

 

😱😛

 

*albeit rendered in 'Art Déco' style, hence the reference to the "années folles"

[Estycollector]

It made you look. 

[Waltz For Zizi]

At least it's not like in the roman times. They were casually painting and carving male genitalia above the entrance and streets, and boys were wearing necklaces of it for fertility and whatnot. What a fun time.

[carola]

Yeah, okay... but all in all, it seems to me that Europeans in general have always had a much more relaxed attitude towards naked bodies, male or female, than, let´s say, Americans. And to me, that´s a good thing.

 

I don´t think sexist advertising is a good thing, mind you. And the motifs in those two ads are kind of... far fetched.

[Bo Bo Olson]

The US 1917 Liberty quarter was one breast free, until that ended about six months later.

My guess was those who complained so much didn't know of the original picture, or it was W*ores who led the French Revolution. The weather was so very bad; like a key to the US Rebellion**. The shady Ladies had ridden out to partition the King on one of his rides, in they could not afford bread. 

 

The second-richest man in America behind Benny Franklin, the smuggler John Hancock who signed that hanging document after the war was signed a win...not before. He owed the Brits 100,000 in smuggling duties. He paid 15,000 to start a war. The Tea tax was over when he and two other tea smuggler ships docked at Boston Wharf. Hancock paid the thief and rabble-rouser Sam Adams...stole 15,000 pounds as treasure of Harvard. He was paid to get the rabble drunk , dress up like Indians and toss the tea of the two smuggler ships into the harbor. Not of course Hancock's ship. He was able to break even. Tea was legal, and he'd paid smuggled tea prices for it.

The shot at Lexington didin't have to hit anyone (and didn't...how odd)....and I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you salvage rights on, if it wasn't a paid for Handcock man shooting that shot.

He owed a 100,000 pounds, and needed the war now. He'd armed the colonies with 15,000 pounds worth of old worn out French guns and ammunition.

And who told who, that there was enough hidden ammo and guns that a whole British Army had to march out and take it....and not a squad, which was all that it would have taken in peace loving Massachusetts colony. 

One don't become the second-richest man in the whole of the colonies without leaving a space for the dot, one puts an i under. 

The flashing T was crossed after the war, was in the space left by all the rest of the men, who put their necks on the line with their signature.

He signed the Declaration of Independence after the war....not first or even during. Lies get embedded and sound good for a needed American mythology. 

 

Gee, for a 15,000 pound tax write off, the gentlemen left me this grand space, in they know I paid to make their wishes come true. 

I'm sure he was richer than Bennie by the end of the war, in he had his smuggling ships. 

 

 

** The English paid 8% and the US colonists paid 3%, and so it had nothing to do with wanting representation, it had all to do with not wanting to pay any tax at all....sound familiar?

 

Please do read 'Oliver Wisswald' by Kennith Roberts, one of the most important books I ever read. I was then no longer ashamed of my, honorable, word holding, Tory ancestors. Who were ethnically cleaned by word breaking, house plundering, and candle stick stealing...blinding, ra*eing, so called, Patriots. 

That book explained why the English lost. The conservative Generals and Admirals dragged a war out, that could have been won at Long Island. Dragged out because they wanted to change that blasted Liberal Government back in London. Lost because of a storm, scattering the British relief fleet for Cornwallis. The French fleet held together better, was able to sink the British fleet in detail. 

 

Such a good book, I kept hoping the Loyalists/Tories would win down to the last page. 

[Armo]

Don't know about the airbrush artist but the glassware looks like it maybe Lalique.

[Penguincollector]

   If you think this ad is titillating, check out the Cross/Verve Records collaborative ad campaign. 

[inkstainedruth]

Oh, now I'm going to HAVE to look for that!  I have a Cross Verve I found for a buck (plus tax) at a place where people donate art supplies to (I think they're connected to Construction Junction), and then someone in my local pen club gave me a converter for it.  

I was sort of appalled by the prices being asked for the pens these days (I keep meaning to ink mine up again at some point, to see if I can hold it high enough on the section as to NOT get ink all over my fingers from that two-part nib...).  Because as far as I'm concerned?  The thing is only worth a buck....

OTOH?  I wish I had a couple more colors of Cross Solos -- those are WONDERFUL pens to write with.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[SpencerianDream]

On 6/7/2025 at 7:41 AM, Bo Bo Olson said:

The US 1917 Liberty quarter was one breast free, until that ended about six months later.

My guess was those who complained so much didn't know of the original picture, or it was W*ores who led the French Revolution. The weather was so very bad; like a key to the US Rebellion**. The shady Ladies had ridden out to partition the King on one of his rides, in they could not afford bread. 

 

The second-richest man in America behind Benny Franklin, the smuggler John Hancock who signed that hanging document after the war was signed a win...not before. He owed the Brits 100,000 in smuggling duties. He paid 15,000 to start a war. The Tea tax was over when he and two other tea smuggler ships docked at Boston Wharf. Hancock paid the thief and rabble-rouser Sam Adams...stole 15,000 pounds as treasure of Harvard. He was paid to get the rabble drunk , dress up like Indians and toss the tea of the two smuggler ships into the harbor. Not of course Hancock's ship. He was able to break even. Tea was legal, and he'd paid smuggled tea prices for it.

The shot at Lexington didin't have to hit anyone (and didn't...how odd)....and I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you salvage rights on, if it wasn't a paid for Handcock man shooting that shot.

He owed a 100,000 pounds, and needed the war now. He'd armed the colonies with 15,000 pounds worth of old worn out French guns and ammunition.

And who told who, that there was enough hidden ammo and guns that a whole British Army had to march out and take it....and not a squad, which was all that it would have taken in peace loving Massachusetts colony. 

One don't become the second-richest man in the whole of the colonies without leaving a space for the dot, one puts an i under. 

The flashing T was crossed after the war, was in the space left by all the rest of the men, who put their necks on the line with their signature.

He signed the Declaration of Independence after the war....not first or even during. Lies get embedded and sound good for a needed American mythology. 

 

Gee, for a 15,000 pound tax write off, the gentlemen left me this grand space, in they know I paid to make their wishes come true. 

I'm sure he was richer than Bennie by the end of the war, in he had his smuggling ships. 

 

 

** The English paid 8% and the US colonists paid 3%, and so it had nothing to do with wanting representation, it had all to do with not wanting to pay any tax at all....sound familiar?

 

Please do read 'Oliver Wisswald' by Kennith Roberts, one of the most important books I ever read. I was then no longer ashamed of my, honorable, word holding, Tory ancestors. Who were ethnically cleaned by word breaking, house plundering, and candle stick stealing...blinding, ra*eing, so called, Patriots. 

That book explained why the English lost. The conservative Generals and Admirals dragged a war out, that could have been won at Long Island. Dragged out because they wanted to change that blasted Liberal Government back in London. Lost because of a storm, scattering the British relief fleet for Cornwallis. The French fleet held together better, was able to sink the British fleet in detail. 

 

Such a good book, I kept hoping the Loyalists/Tories would win down to the last page. 

Thanks for the recommendation, just grabbed a copy on eBay. My distant ancestors were tories from Pennsylvania who moved to Ontario, Canada after the war. This sounds like an interesting read! 

[inkstainedruth]

And now I'm thinking of the line from my husband's favorite "Christmas movie", The Lion in Winter (the original, with Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn -- I haven't seen the remake) where Eleanor of Aquitaine says:

          "I even made poor Louis take me on Crusade. How's that for blasphemy. I dressed

          my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a      

          seizure and I damn near died of windburn... but the troops were dazzled."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

5 hours ago, SpencerianDream said:

My distant ancestors were tories from Pennsylvania who moved to Ontario, Canada after the war

Mine moved to PI... Prince Edward Island, and due to lack of work ended up back in the States for the next rebellion.

I had been shamed of my Tory ancestry, until I read that book. Since then proud of them.

 

Kenneth Roberts got away with writing Oliver Wiswald...because he was the US's best French-Indian War and the Rebellion, and war of 1812 writer.........had it not been for that....well it's good that certain capped Americans don't read of that book would be on the burn list even before Catcher in the Rye, which I found boring as a 13 year old....could be I was too young when I read them...

I read a massive amount of thick (boring)  Russian Classics in about that time also. 

Picked my nose up out of Plato and said, nowhere to be found, still.

[inkstainedruth]

I have an ancestor who was the original land-grant owner in what is now Buckhannon, WV.  He apparently was a good Tory (he got his land grant directly from George III).  There was a family story about how his son was stolen by Indians and found years later at a trading post somewhere in what is now Ohio.  But my uncle (who inherited all the family genealogy stuff from my great aunts, because my mom couldn't have given a rat's (bleep) about any of it (they claimed we were descended from Charlemagne (!) -- mostly on "the wrong side of the blanket" of course; that was apparently okay ).  But my uncle was convinced that there was a DIFFERENT version of the story about Baron Jacob (or John, depending on the source).  Apparently his wife had a strange name, and my uncle was convinced that, no, the kid WASN'T "stolen by Indians" as claimed -- he just went and lived with his mom's family for a number of years.  And during the Revolutionary War?  He worked as a scout for the American side (because he was trained to stuff like that when he was growing up).  So, if you believe my great aunts?  I'm a (very distant) descendant of Charlemagne.  But if you believe my uncle?  My brother and my cousin and I are 1/250th Shawnee-Delaware....  

As for Catcher in the Rye?  Ehhhh.  I had to read it for some class in high school and while it was kinda lame, it was at least readable.  OTOH, if I NEVER have to read A Farewell to Arms again, it will be too soon....  ZZZZZZ.  And I made the mistake of reading his memoir,  A Moveable Feast at one point, after having read a snippet about bullfighting (and thought at the time, "okay -- he's a better writer than I thought, but maybe should have stuck to nonfiction...).  But nope.  I was wrong....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

4 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

if I NEVER have to read A Farewell to Arms again, it will be too soon

The sleek, unadorned Hemingway's English I never found, until the Old Man and the Fish/Sea.

Some descriptions in, For Whom the Bell Tolls were good, but that book, dragged on and on. (Mine does too.) Anyone's English is sleek and unadorned vs Faulkner.

 

Hemingway's short stories may have made sense to an American in the dry prohibition and early depression; not to me. When he went back to the US, he couldn't relate to his country anymore. Me too, especially now. Ann Rand strikes back....((as a kid, I was a fan, and then I grew up, and wasn't.))

 

Red Badge of Courage was modern, unadorned English. And a long time before Hemingway. Crane's first (I'd thought it, his second) book about the fallen girl Maggie wasn't all that good. .... I should read it in Gutenberg, there may be a tad of flavor I can steal. It definitely was lifetimes ahead of the society it was written in. Is it on this year's burn list???

 

Hemingway and Thurber, were alcoholics, so stayed in Europe until the bars re-opened in the States. 

A big man, when 6 foot and 200 pounds was a big heavyweight, Hemingway was well known for beating up smaller men in bars.** He considered himself a coward, which was why he was so interested in Bull Fighting, big game hunting and such & beating up small men. He drove an Ambulance in WW1, and did not join the Army to fight, when the US joined the war. I might have known better my self, but it is my guess, it preyed on him, and therefore his writings.

 

** When I found that out, I lost all respect for the man. It was after he committed suicide that that came out. Don't know if that was with help of the FBI or not. He was right, they were spying on him.

 

From Thurber, I learned always stop with the word AND. That way when starting the next day, one has a jump start, and it can always be erased later. (Not that I always do that, but have stopped with AND part of the time when remembered.)

I tend to use a semicolon instead of and.

[inkstainedruth]

I used to think Hemingway's non-fiction was better, after reading a snippet from his memoirs (which was about bullfighting stuff).  But then I read the entire book and was seriously unimpressed.  By him AND his writing.

Always liked Steinbeck's novels way better for the most part (although didn't really care for his short stories).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[georgeb]

And then there's William Kotzwinkle.

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 6/18/2025 at 5:45 AM, georgeb said:

William Kotzwinkle

Never heard of him, or Dr. Rat.....'after my time'.

 

I just read a list of 15 banned books. I read to Kill a Mocking bird in Reader's Digest abridged books. Huck Finn**, I've read some 12 times, 

Louis McMaster Bujold' Apprentice Warrior, I've read some 15 times.

The bulk of Bujold's works comprises three series: the Vorkosigan Saga, the World of the Five Gods (only have the first book), and the Sharing Knife series. I was lucky to get all four books, and am on my 7-8th time reading them.

 

Living in Germany, after I stopped working for the Americans, could no longer get American books cheap.....books are expensive here in Germany.

 

I once wrote a fan letter, raving about all the writer's tricks she put in The Warrior's Apprentice. I addressed it to her publisher. Some six months later, she wrote me a postcard.

I hate it when folks at Wiki, never read what they are talking about.

"""The title story features Beta Colony, and another story contains a character named Cordelia Naismith, perhaps a distant ancestor of the Vorkosigan character."""  His mother. A quite distant relative. 

........................

Back to the banned books, Most of the banned books I saw on one list, weren't on another list...many about biological problems of modern times.

 

But How Come I was able to read most of these at 12-14 and suffered no ill that I can point at. I was once a Goldwater boy, and now Know Bernie Sanders is middle of the road, centralist, if he was in Europe where they have all he wants. Full medical coverage, even if unemployed. Don't have to sell your fountain pen collection, car and house for medical bills. 

 

My mother moved to the States and bought a house a couple of years before she retired. She had to work part-time as a typist in a local newspaper until she was 80, and the house was paid off, she could then afford Blue Shield. In Medicare is out of patent medicine 17 years old or older...or was. It was good she did that, the operation allowed her to live five more years.  

 

Richard 'Guest' one of the founders of this com, got sick; wheelchair and O2 tank, and had to sell the world's greatest collection of Wearever pens for a nickel on the dollar....and had such a great blog. 

Wearever had second tier pens, as good as Esterbrooks, and nice third tier pens....and even 4th tier pens they made for others.  If in the States, I'd still be working at least part-time for better medical care....and would be free ball point only....No, I'd be living on the Canadian border...no, I'd be living in Canada, where I can afford Diabetes medicine. My insurance covers much of that cost. ... I think I got to add 5-6 € for a few months of those pills. There are a bunch of other pills I've got to take also. I love socialized medicine. €10 a day in the hospital, 10 extra for a private room (normally 2-3 to a room) and 10 more for a TV.

 

20-22 years ago I was in the States for the first time in a decade in a half, I was shocked at all the 70-year-old cashier women having to stand...our cashiers do sit. Then some 12-14 years ago, I don't remember if it was Wallmart, but something like it. They had done away with cart pushers, because of coin operated push carts. So this 80-year-old woman, had to stand and be a cashier. 80 years old...probably normal now.

 

Shocked the hell out of me, how callus America became after Regan.

There were no bag ladies in America before Regan. First, he closed the methadone clinics on the first day. A certain commodity remains cheap with addicts constant needs.

Then as Governor Regan let all the harmless nuts who couldn't take care of themselves out of the nut house, into a cruel, mean world, to families who couldn't care for them, or they'd not ended up in the nut house in the first place. The well-to-do, gave the family nuts Grayhound passes and ... that was an interesting occurrence, the one and only time I rode Grayhound in California. A real irritating madman. The rest of the harmless nuts got to steal a shopping cart. 

 

Seeing Calcutta happen in America is shameful. First workers sleeping in their car....then being a well-to-do bum, with your very own tent!!!

...........................

Off the rant, back to some of the books. 

“The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. To me, a read once. Required in School.

“The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. ????? I read that a couple of times. The previous poor as hell time. 

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. It did help open my half opened eyes.

In northern Mississippi, I didn't care the coloreds had to use the old white school. Not the new AC'd white one. Their school had a big shade tree, fans on the ceiling and Franklin stoves....no big deal.

 

We did have to erase all marks we made in the paper bag covered books, in when they got old, they became colored school books. The teachers were up on having those books in real good condition, to be give away someday. No big deal, school books don't change that much.

 

That the coloreds had to eat on the back steps of a restaurant didn't bother me...we couldn't afford to go to a restaurant in the first place. 

WHAT BOTHERED ME...... Hot day, higher 90's in the Mississippi hot and humid town park, on the side of the public restrooms was a 'colored only' water fountain. Nobody was looking, and it was 10 yards to the white water fountain out in the sun. THE WATER WAS HOT, even if in the shade of the restroom building. The water from the White's water fountain was COLD!! 

I was 12 and knew Separate, but Equal was my royal American.

No one but chain gang members should be forced to drink hot water in a burning hot, humid Mississippi day. 

.................................

 

“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell. It's here.

 

Not read...not in the States....“Beloved” by Toni Morrison. Over here, paper backs cost as much as hardcovers. Never heard of the book, actually. 

 

“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. My mother didn't care for that book. She landed D-Day +10. And we were military. I read it later to ho hum. Dam movie broke up Simon and Garfunkel. 

“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. Again, just a one read book.

“Animal Farm” by George Orwell. I read that 3-4 times in my teens. 

In the first list of banned books I read about today, there were 5-6 other books I'd read, that didn't change me into an instant liberal. That was a decade's long-drawn-out process. Started probably when I was 30, and found out I wasn't a millionaire. 

.....................

When I was in my mid-twenties and had to do with ... liberals...for the first time in my life.

I, an ex-Army brat was told Reader's Digest was a jingoistic rag....

That was 100% wrong...dammed liberals.

Then some ten years later at the on Army Post Thrift Shop, I bought a dozen set of twenty-year-old Reader's Digest magazines. 

My God....those liberals were right....it was an anti-union, jingoistic rag.

............

Well, looking across the Atlantic River, I see things and changes. Could be how radical right America has become Reader's Digest could now be middle of the road, outside their constant anti-Union bias. 

 

A while later, when working for the Germans, I became a Union man, and was sent to Union seminars paid for by the company I worked for. Became a reserve Union board member. Still paying retired Union fees. It's only a couple of Euro's ... and it is to me a good cause.