The Alpha and Omega of "40"

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 453

Perhaps this is more the Alpher and Omeger of the concept of 40, but, then, one never knows about these things, even when they're pronounced in the manner of  Mr. Eugene Krabs (a  Spongebob reference; Mr. Krabs tends to put "er" at the end of words ending in "a", like "spatuler").  

Ah, well. 

The warnings of death AND light beginning at 40 seems to be a little contradictory, a little bit of singularity happening at a place  that I left behind 12 years ago. But all these beautifully designed pamphlets are yelling about is traffic speed and life insurance:  traffic deaths start piling up at 40 m.p.h. and men (not women) should start buying life insurance then because their big earnings years "come to light".

These pamphlets are both part of my Naive Surreal Collection--works that seem commonplace and standard when they were published but whose context is decidedly antiquarian and semi-existent in 2009.  Often the best part of these pamphlets are their covers, though they can all be mined for the forgotten social ephemera that lurks just beneath their surface.  But in these cases it is really just the incredibly arcane messages in the artwork that I find most interesting. 

Comments

[Rick]

Ironically, my own version of the Spalding book would have to be titled, "Heavy Begins at 40."

John, the sheer volume of these pamphlets which you have in your collection leaves me with the same feeling I used to have after reading 15 pages of a Michener novel: so much more fun to come, in comparison to what has already passed.

I'm looking forward to many more gloriously dated or overly descriptive or simply beautiful covers and descriptions yet to have their moment in the sun here!

Thanks, John.