Guns and Roses November Rain video Church Identification

My lying brother once told me that it was at the McDougall Church in Morleyville, Alberta, that Slash performed his gratuitous guitar solo in the video for November Rain. Apparently, the church is in fact one which was portable (ie. on wheels), and they filmed the scene in New Mexico.  So much for a local connection to rock and roll sleaze!

McDougall Stoney Mission Church, Morley, Alberta.

Slash rips in up in New Mexico.

Give a Hoot Don't Pollute

Jay Wexley's contribution to McSweeney's this week show's the frustrations of Woodsy the Owl in his attempt to battle pollution in the modern age.  It seems that "Give a Hoot Don't Pollute" just doesn't have the same resonance these days!

Here is an old video from 1977 that emphasizes the generation gap:

 

For a more serious treatment of Woodsy's history, including an interesting justification of his genesis due to U.S. federal government strictures on the role of Smokey the Bear as being purely against forest fires, see this excellent tribute to Woodsy's creator, Harold Bell.

Sten Gun Grannies

Perhaps you've heard of the Bren Gun Girl? Veronica Foster was a worker at the John Inglis Company plant in Toronto which manufactured the Bren Light Machine Gun.  "Ronnie" the Bren Gun Girl's image was used for propaganda purposes to boost the war effort. 

Nothing like a smoke after a hard days work.

Less familiar will be this group of Sten Gun Grannies, who worked at the Lakeview Small Arms Munitions factory.  The Sten submachine gun was generally not admired by front line troops, due to its tendency to misfire, fire on fully automatic when in the semi-auto position, or discharge an entire clip when dropped.  The accompanying article from the Toronto Star of 1943 noted that some 70 "grandmas" worked the factory and were eager to show they could shoot as well as make guns. 

None of these matriarchs shot from the hip.

While propaganda depicting women in the workforce was used to recruit more workers, the idea that the Second World War opened the manufacturing industry up to women is not universally accepted by historians.  Conservative print media during the war suggested that women in the workforce would undermine family values, which, in part, explains their general retreat from industry at the close of hostilities.  Women were a valuable source of labour during the war, however, and their wartime integration into the industrial sector helped later arguments for equality.