Been a while since I visited Archive.org, which I remember from the early days of the Internet. Or at least my early days on the Internet, back in 199-something. According to the site, the archive now holds 330 billion web pages, 20 million books and other texts, 4.5 million audio recordings, 4 million videos, 3 million images and 200,000 software programs.

Maybe not the Library of Babel, or even the Library of Alexandria — or the existing Library of Congress, with its 168 million items — but impressive all the same. A fine place to wander around. When I did so the other day, I came across digitized versions of Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, the juvenile humor mag whose heyday was nearly 100 years ago.

I downloaded a cover. It’s public domain now. The explosion of pedigreed bunk belongs to all humanity.

Naturally I spent some time reading some of the jokes. They were anachronistically mentioned by Prof. Harold Hill, after all: “Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger? A dime novel hidden in the corncrib? Is he starting to memorize jokes from Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang?”

This is what I have to say about it: juvenile humor has a short shelf life. Also worth noting: 25 cents wasn’t exactly cheap in the 1920s for a kid. A quarter in 1922 had the purchasing power of about $3.80 now.

Speaking of juvenile humor, I ran across this article the other day. Interesting that the writer, or maybe the editor, expects readers to get the visual reference to Alfred E. Neuman. So, apparently, do the editors of Der Spiegel, at least their English-speaking audience.