Aptly timed as I shelter in place during a tornado warning, today I found one of earliest printed photos of a tornado. And another risk, just to lighten things up.
The Photo That Almost Killed Him
Wisconsin Tornado" photograph — The Morning Star, July 27 1926
The caption on this one undersells it. A tornado tears across northern Wisconsin, and according to the paper, this was one of the very few photographs of a tornado in existence at the time. The photographer got his shot, then had to leap into a hole in the ground immediately afterward just to survive.
Worth sitting with what that actually required. No fast shutters, no zoom lenses, no early warning systems. Getting a photo like this meant standing in the open, in the tornado's path, and trusting there'd be enough time left to get clear once the shutter clicked. He was right, this time.
Sunburned Initials
Considerably lower stakes. The latest fad supposedly imported from the Riviera: taping your own initials onto your arm or leg with adhesive tape, leaving it in place for two or three days while the rest of your skin tans around it, then peeling the tape off to reveal your own monogram in pale, un-tanned skin.
Sunburned Initials New Fad; It Comes From Gay Riviera" — The News, July 27 1926
The paper credits two sisters in San Antonio, Josephine and Agnes Escamilla, with bringing the trend stateside. The one piece of practical advice offered is almost sitcom-ready: don't remove the tape too soon, and don't try to rush the tan.
It's a fun, harmless idea on its own terms, a hundred years before deliberate tan lines and temporary skin art became their own whole genre.
See you tomorrow. – Chris
Sources
The Morning Star, July 27, 1926
The News, July 27, 1926