I have a dear old friend who's always sending me her "forwarded" emails, and they're usually weird and funny, and sometimes hilarious. So today I got one that's good enough to share with my friends on DU.

It's a collection of old magazine and newspaper ads of products that are either gone, or else marketed completely differently now. Some you might recognize, but the ads are funny because the messages are so politically incorrect. Most of these are from the 1940's and 50's I think. The Atari ad had to be later, maybe from about 1975 or '80.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette / citing New York Times

By Christopher Mele, New York Times

A former star of pornographic movies received a $130,000 payment a month before the 2016 election that was part of an agreement to keep her from publicly discussing a sexual encounter she claimed to have had with now-President Donald Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday afternoon.

The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Michael Cohen, who was a top lawyer at the Trump Organization, arranged the payment to the woman, Stephanie Clifford, in October 2016 after her lawyer negotiated a nondisclosure agreement.

Clifford, who was billed as Stormy Daniels in her dozens of videos, said the encounter with Trump took place in July 2006 after a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, the Journal reported. Trump married Melania Trump in 2005.

In a statement to the Journal, Cohen said of the alleged sexual encounter that “President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2018/01/12/The-Wall-Street-Journal-is-reporting-that-a-former-adult-film-star-received-hush-money-from-a-top-Trump-lawyer/stories/201801120207

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- More at link -

It's Friday evening - time for the sensational news dump!

Link http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2018/01/08/nancy-pelosi-paul-ryan-conor-lamb-rick-saccone-18th-district-special-election/stories/201801080095

By Chris Potter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 1/8/18

Conor Lamb, the Democrat running to replace Tim Murphy in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, said that if elected, he would like to see House Democrats replace Nancy Pelosi as their leader.

“I think it’s clear that this Congress is not working for people,” said Mr. Lamb on Monday morning, as some initial polling data was circulating and national interest in the race continues to swirl. “I think we need new leadership on both sides.”

His support for new party leadership “is not personal,” added the former federal prosecutor. But he said that after speaking with people in the district, “It’s more about the fact that I expect leaders to get results, and the result of our Congressional leadership has been to have people in the district dissatisfied with their performance.”

While such questions may seem premature — the special election won’t be held until March 13 — the race is widely seen as a potential bellwether for how the 2018 elections will affect control of Congress. And Ms. Pelosi, a favorite target of Republican attacks, was all but certain to be frequently mentioned in campaign rhetoric.

- More at link -

Pennsylvanians will recall that the 18th Congressional District is running a special election in March 2018 to elect a new Representative for Tim Murphy's seat. Murphy resigned in November due to personal issues (an extra-marital affair) and staffers' claims of sexual misconduct. The 18th CD is one of the gerrymandered PA districts that favors GOP candidates, southwest and southeast of Pittsburgh. This could be a good opportunity for Democrats.

My 10 year old grandson is an award-winning speller and I'm very proud of him. I challenged him to learn how to spell Punxsutawney (small town in Pennsylvania) and he learned it. Proud Grandma that I am, I gave him $5.

Now I have to come up with even more challenging names and I thought maybe you guys could help me out.
I guess I should probably limit it to towns and cities in the USA, just to play fair.

Let me know what you come up with.

Happy BLUE Year 2018!