Skip to content Try Ads-Free Fark It's Not News, It's Fark How To FarkLog In | Sign Up » Forgot password? Turn on javascript (or enable it for Fark) for a better user experience. If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page. Discussion Entertainment TikTok challenges, airline delays, controversial flags, and architecture are all on the Fark Weird News Quiz, April 11-17 Wallpapaer Edition II (fark.com) More: Weird, High school, Quiz, Kraken, Hat, Fark, New York Mets, Major League Baseball, Sicily 149 clicks;posted toMain »and Discussion »on 18 Apr 2025 at 11:40 PM(1 hour ago) | Favorite | Watch | share: Copy Link 8 Comments Enable JavaScript for Fark in order to vote for entries. Log in (at the top of the page) to enable voting. View Voting Results:SmartestandFunniest (0) Funniest Welcome to the Fark Weird News Quiz! If this is your first time here, you can start the Quiz by clicking on the logo next to the headline above, or here: https://www.fark.com/quiz/1970 Once your score is tallied, you can click on any of the correct answers to be taken to the Fark thread about that story. If you don't have a Fark account, you can still take the Easy Quiz here: https://www.fark.com/quiz/1972 ox45tallboy (2) Funniest As we talked about last week, new and innovative wallpaper was all the rage in the 1950s. Those modern and easy-to-clean materials that drove Kutol to stop making its wallpaper cleaner, coupled with the post WWII prosperity, were creating a huge market for home decor. Everyone had ideas, some weirder than others, and some truly innovative. Al Fielding was an engineer who wanted to get in on this boom, and he enlisted the help of his buddy Marc Chavannes, a Swedish chemist he had known for a bit. Together, they had this idea that they felt would revolutionize the wallpaper industry forever: textured wallpaper. Not just textured, but made of plastic so it was easy-to-clean and damage resistant. Through Marc's chemistry knowledge, they settled on a type of plastic generally used in shower curtains that would be transparent and even mildew resistant. The textured patterns of plastic screamed "modern 1950s" and it would be the most low-maintenance wallpaper on the market. Of course, no one has textured wallpaper today, so needless to say it bombed. No one liked it. It was just... weird. But they knew they had *something* with this invention, they just weren't quite sure what it was. They tested it in several ways, and discovered it actually was a fairly good insulator. For the next year they tried marketing it as a cheap greenhouse insulator, one that would let the light in and keep the heat from escaping. This, too, did not go well. Fiberglass was a thing by then, and no one really wanted this crap on their walls, even in their greenhouse. But the next year, they had a stroke of luck. They hired the right person. Someone who knew it's always a matter of perspective. They hired a salesman named Fred Bowers. Like that scene in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" where Del Griffith sells some teenage girls shower curtain rings as earrings, Fred knew the job of a salesman was to move the product, not just sell to a specific market. Presumably after getting kicked out of yet another indoor gardening convention, he took another look at this stuff and realized Al and Marc had it all wrong. Fred made some calls and got an appointment with IBM. Less than a year later, the revolutionary 1960 IBM 1401 computer, the first of the highly successful 1400 series that sold over 12,000 units in the 1960s, became the first commercial product to ship wrapped in bubble wrap. Al Fielding and Marc Chavannes' Sealed Air Corporation went on to commercial success in supplying packing materials for the next few decades, and I'm pretty sure they gave Fred Bowers some kind of Salesman of the Year award or something. You know, they did eventually succeed in getting someone to use it as wallpaper. Three seperate times, once in 2004, again in 2008-2009, and once more for a year from March 2016 to March 2017, a standard 11 3/4" square piece of bubble wrap has hung, properly attributed to the artists, on a wall of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The piece is considered part of the museum's permanent collection and can be viewed online. Anyway, take the quiz and come back and tell us how you did and if you think they might have had better luck marketing it as wallpaper in the 1970s. Good luck, and let me know if you have any issues. ox45tallboy (0) Funniest This is it to the right of the cardboard box. ox45tallboy (0) Funniest 31 minutes ago I don't think I've ever owned an article of clothing that costs $310. wearsmanyhats (1) Funniest 32 minutes ago I clearly didn't read the news this week. Diocletian's Last Cabbage (0) Funniest 33 minutes ago ox45tallboy: As we talked about last week, new and innovative wallpaper was all the rage in the 1950s. Those modern and easy-to-clean materials that drove Kutol to stop making its wallpaper cleaner, coupled with the post WWII prosperity, were creating a huge market for home decor. Everyone had ideas, some weirder than others, and some truly innovative. Al Fielding was an engineer who wanted to get in on this boom, and he enlisted the help of his buddy Marc Chavannes, a Swedish chemist he had known for a bit. Together, they had this idea that they felt would revolutionize the wallpaper industry forever: textured wallpaper. Not just textured, but made of plastic so it was easy-to-clean and damage resistant. Through Marc's chemistry knowledge, they settled on a type of plastic generally used in shower curtains that would be transparent and even mildew resistant. The textured patterns of plastic screamed "modern 1950s" and it would be the most low-maintenance wallpaper on the market. Of course, no one has textured wallpaper today, so needless to say it bombed. No one liked it. It was just... weird. But they knew they had *something* with this invention, they just weren't quite sure what it was. They tested it in several ways, and discovered it actually was a fairly good insulator. For the next year they tried marketing it as a cheap greenhouse insulator, one that would let the light in and keep the heat from escaping. This, too, did not go well. Fiberglass was a thing by then, and no one really wanted this crap on their walls, even in their greenhouse. But the next year, they had a stroke of luck. They hired the right person. Someone who knew it's always a matter of perspective. They hired a salesman named Fred Bowers. Like that scene in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" where Del Griffith sells some teenage girls shower curtain rings as earrings, Fred knew the job of a salesman was to move the product, not just sell to a specific market. Presumably after getting kicked out of yet another indoor gardening convention, he took another look at this stuff and realized Al and Marc had it all wrong. Fred made some calls and got an appointment with IBM. Less than a year later, the revolutionary 1960 IBM 1401 computer, the first of the highly successful 1400 series that sold over 12,000 units in the 1960s, became the first commercial product to ship wrapped in bubble wrap. Al Fielding and Marc Chavannes' Sealed Air Corporation went on to commercial success in supplying packing materials for the next few decades, and I'm pretty sure they gave Fred Bowers some kind of Salesman of the Year award or something. You know, they did eventually succeed in getting someone to use it as wallpaper. Three seperate times, once in 2004, again in 2008-2009, and once more for a year from March 2016 to March 2017, a standard 11 3/4" square piece of bubble wrap has hung, properly attributed to the artists, on a wall of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The piece is considered part of the museum's permanent collection and can be viewed online. Anyway, take the quiz and come back and tell us how you did and if you think they might have had better luck marketing it as wallpaper in the 1970s. Good luck, and let me know if you have any issues. 6/11, low 600s. And you couldn't get the public to buy bubble wrap wallpaper in the 70s. It was all shag back then; shag carpet, shag wallpaper, shag armpits and stuff. freakingmoron (0) Funniest less than a minute ago ox45tallboy: I don't think I've ever owned an article of clothing that costs $310. [Fark user image image 800x800] Not a suit? Maybe adjust for inflation. I bought a pair of dress shoes in 1991 that I still have. I paid $110 for them then and I still wear them occasionally. According to a couple of online inflation calculators that'd be about $235 today. Not hitting that $300... The last suit I bought was $500ish on sale. Technically it's two articles of clothing but if I figure 2/3rds of that for the jacket then I'd have the price. And that would be 2010 dollars. OH! Despite not Farking around much this week I went 11/11 on the hard quiz and 10/10 on the easy quiz. Yay me! Time to sleep. Goodnight! ox45tallboy (0) Funniest less than a minute ago freakingmoron: Not a suit? I'm not into suits. The few I've worn as an adult to weddings and funerals I've picked up cheap at thrift stores. I wear a 44 long, which is pretty common. Displayed 8 of 8 comments Enable JavaScript for Fark in order to vote for entries. Log in (at the top of the page) to enable voting. View Voting Results:SmartestandFunniest Redisplay/refresh comments If you're having problems voting, quoting, or posting comments, try disabling any browser add-ons that might disable Javascript (NoScript, AdBlock, etc).See our FAQ. Forgot password? Create an account to make comments Remember me If you can see this, something's wrong with your browser's CSS support. (Or you're a spambot.) If you are using the NoScript browser extension, you may have problems posting comments, especially if they contain images.For a fix, see this FAQ entry.If you still have problems, contact Farkback. Before adding a comment, please take a minute to review our posting rules and our legal/privacy policy. 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