It’s WrestleMania weekend!

While I admit that I’ve become more of a fair weather fan, WWE’s WrestleMania still feels like a holiday. The event is this Sunday, but there’s enough wrasslin’ shit going on for fans to make a whole weekend out of it. I’m very much looking forward to spending 48 hours buzzed and buzzing. And maybe even live-tweeting some trivial nitpicks.

If you’re a wrestling nut, I think you’ll enjoy this week’s early-arriving episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast.

It’s WrestleMemories, with me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit. We’re both lifelong devotees, with decades’ worth of silly stories to share — from Jay meeting Cap’n Lou Albano to me hiding pictures of Miss Elizabeth in a crummy safe.

And hey, if you’re not a wrestling fan, hopefully the story about my horrible junior high ice skating trip is still worth listening to.

Check it out by clicking the giant play button below!

You can also download this week’s episode by right-clicking here.

Reminder: The Purple Stuff Podcast can also be found on iTunes, Stitcher and Podbean.

Thanks as always for lending us your ears! Read More…

Some print ads are worth spending whole days obsessing over.

…like this one, from 1985!

As part of a special co-promotion between Toys “R” Us and Post Cereal, kids had a chance to win a $1000 shopping spree. If you plucked the winning game piece from a box of Super Golden Crisp, you’d get to zip around your nearest TRU and fill multiple shopping carts with as much as you could grab.

Similar contests ran throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, and I know I’m not the only one who used to daydream about winning them. In the mind of a child, that $1000 maximum sounded more like a million. The idea of getting everything you ever wanted all at once was totally intoxicating.

This Post Cereal contest ran in 1985, so naturally, the print ad basically mashed the entirely of that year’s Sears Wish Book onto one overstuffed page. (Especially incredible is the fact that even that much stuff couldn’t have retailed for $1000, so the winner presumably went home with even more!)

If you’re having trouble identifying all of the goodies in that shopping cart, no worries, I took care of it for you. Read on, and imagine getting all of this treasure on one exciting afternoon! Read More…

After my TMNT eBay romp, reader/pal Sammy Hain suggested doing one for The Simpsons. I’m so game.

Below are some of the most interesting pieces of Simpsons memorabilia currently on eBay. I stuck with stuff from the show’s earliest years, when Homer and Bart were still the coolest dudes in town.

If you’re too young to have been with The Simpsons from the start, man, those were different times. The show still has millions of fans, but at the beginning, the cool factor was off the charts. During its first few seasons, it was by far the safest thing to obsess over… because literally all of your friends were doing the same thing.

Bart Simpson T-Shirt!
Asking Price: $39.99

In a rare case when I was ahead of the curve, I was the first kid in school to wear a Bart Simpson t-shirt. (Fourth grade, if I remember correctly.) It was a bootleg found in Manhattan, from back before there even were official shirts.

The other kids treated me like a hero, and quite liking the feeling, I made sure to wear that cheap shirt 3-4 times a week. It was my first experience with the law of diminishing returns, but that’s neither here nor there.

Soon enough, “real” Simpsons tees — like the one shown here — were available everywhere. Seemed like every kid had at least two of ’em.

Because some included light obscenities, my school eventually banned all Simpsons shirts. Boy, we were PISSED. Kids took to wearing them under other shirts, only revealing their true allegiances during recess, away from prying eyes. Really, when a $10 t-shirt was all it took to brand you as a cool kid, no grouchy principal was gonna stop you. Read More…