Time for a pulp countdown now, and today it's my top 10 funky flight attendant uniforms!
This thread may involve go-go boots...
At #10: Lufthansa! This uniform was styled on the condiment dispensers at Tempelhof Airport.
At #9: Caledonian Airlines! This look was later used in the film Heathers.
At #8: Southwest Airlines! Here we can see cabin crew explaining to the confused CEO which way the sky is.
At #7: Air France! A natty little knitted outfit that of course includes a beret.
At #6: El-Al! An interesting choice, putting your crew in uniforms they can't actually walk in.
At #5: Transair! Mustard capes and soft felt top hats makes a trip with Transair feel like a night at the opera. A psychedelic opera, but there you go.
At #4: United Airlines! A Mary Quant dress and a truckers cap - what a pairing!
At #3: Braniff Airways! They do look like Batman TV series villains...
At #2: Alaska Airlines! "Ra-Ra-Rasputin..."
And at #1: Hawaiian Airlines! Book 'em Danno!
More pulp countdowns another time. Must fly...
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Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?
Let's find out...
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say.
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile.
Today in pulp I look back at the publishing phenomenon of gamebooks: novels in which YOU are the hero!
A pencil and dice may be required for this thread...
Gamebooks are a simple but addictive concept: you control the narrative. At the end of each section of the story you are offered a choice of outcomes, and based on that you turn to the page indicated to see what happens next.
Gamebook plots are in fact complicated decision tree maps: one or more branches end in success, but many more end in failure! It's down to you to decide which path to tread.
He was the terror of London; a demonic figure with glowing eyes and fiery breath who could leap ten feet high. The penny dreadfuls of the time wrote up his exploits in lurid terms. But who was he really?
Today I look at one of the earliest pulp legends: Spring-Heeled Jack!
London has always attracted ghosts, and in the 19th Century they increasingly left their haunted houses and graveyards and began to wader the capital's streets.
But one apparition caught the Victorian public attention more than most...
In October 1837 a 'leaping character' with a look of the Devil began to prey on Londoners. Often he would leap high into the air and land in front of a carriage, causing it to crash. It would then flee with a high-pitched laugh.