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example22 ([personal profile] example22) wrote2006-09-04 04:52 pm
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In the year 2000...

Popular Mechanics, 1950:


"Because everything in her home is waterproof, the housewife of 2000 can do her daily cleaning with a hose".
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[identity profile] coalescent.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 04:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I genuinely can't tell if that's real or a parody.

[identity profile] example22.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
It's real, I think. It turned up on Language Log (http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003539.html) in the context of "in the future, technology will have changed but gender stereotypes won't".

The house of 2000 has no books (at least, not after that madwoman's been round with the hose it doesn't), no ornaments, nothing fragile at all...
ext_36163: (thecleanerwithin)

[identity profile] cleanskies.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, the times I've been tempted to do that to my living room ...
jinty: (heh)

[personal profile] jinty 2006-09-04 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
surely no-one could seriously suggest this. Electricity alone would rule this out, wouldn't it? Or are they thinking of waterproof plug sockets?

[identity profile] zengineer.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Waterproof plug sockets, Plastic books, why not? Looks like the typical approach of an engineer - simplify the problem until a technical solution is possible. I think it's tongue in cheek though. Waterproof underwear you'd want to wear and waterproof food might proove just a touch of a challenge.

[identity profile] celestialweasel.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I can see you have given this a lot of thought :-)

[identity profile] celestialweasel.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Until I see an original copy of PM and can have it authenticated by a 3rd party expert I will believe this is a spoof :-) (or maybe it was a spoof at the time).

[identity profile] example22.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Truly, Everything Is On The Web. Here's a scanned copy of
the whole article (http://www.hepcatwilly.com/uploads/media/Miracles2000.pdf) to tide you over.

Now, OK, it might still be a spoof from the 1950's... but it's worth reading anyway. Food from sawdust! Personal helicopters! Incinerate the tablecloths and hose down the bedsheets! Run used plastic tableware under a hot tap and it'll dissolve and run away down the sink!

[identity profile] brixtonbrood.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
That's fantastic - as Language Log was presumably pointing out, one does wonder what Jane was doing in between the minute she spent hosing the house each morning and the two and a half minutes she spent zapping the frozen food at night...one can only guess.
I liked the LOL of 2000 having people comment on her queerness as well.
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