Fascinating reading

[hmpf]

I'm leafing through copies of the 1975 and 1974 Guardian. Fascinating things noticed so far:

- Much more print; much less white space (in fact, barely any gutters at all between columns of text)
- Some seriously wacky news, some of it due to the 70s Guardian's much more pronounced leftwing orientation, some just... well. (Example of the former: articles about Chinese newspapers debating the role of the hero of a 13th century epic that may have influenced Mao; example of the latter: writer on the occult tries to free bank robber; knife crime after allegations of witchcraft; far left plots to subvert the Labour Party)
- "Heal a broken family today: invite your husband's mistress to move in." - Someone write that. Now. With Gene and the Missus, and Sam as the mistress (obviously).
- A lot of the news is practically identical to today's news. (Energy crisis. Food crisis. Economic crisis. African mothers bottlefeeding their babies and doctors warning that that is *not* a good thing.)
- There *has* to be a better way to research the 70s...

Addendum: Good advice from the Department of Energy, 1974:

"Switching Off Something really helps - Switch Off Something - don't ease off."

;-)

Comments

[neuralclone.livejournal.com]

I did some 70s research by reading old issues of The Times (my workplace subscribes to their online archive), The spectator and the New Statesman and believe me, I didn't read anything nearly as interesting as this! Any of these stories would make a good LOM fanfic - occult bank-robbers and knife wielding witches, oh my, oh my!