# ID this strange fake catalog **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-strange-fake-catalog/526447 "2010-01-26T00:36:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-strange-fake-catalog/526447/1 "2010-01-26T00:36:02Z")
I had a copy of it when I was a kid in the 1970’s. It was a collection of odd objects that you could supposedly purchase from some bizarre mail-order company. Each page had two or three products with short descriptions and black & white drawings. I remember one of the products was a folding travel globe. There was also a “fop’s prophylactic” – a lace condom – which puzzled me to no end since at the time I knew nothing about birth control methods. Ring any bells? ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-strange-fake-catalog/526447/2 "2010-01-26T00:50:34Z")
[Items From Our Catalog](http://www.amazon.com/Items-Our-Catalog-Alfred-Gingold/dp/0380816954), perhaps? It had color photography though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-strange-fake-catalog/526447/3 "2010-01-26T01:01:15Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > [Items From Our Catalog](http://www.amazon.com/Items-Our-Catalog-Alfred-Gingold/dp/0380816954), perhaps? It had color photography though. It was more trippy and subversive. It had a definite hippie/counterculture vibe. I probably got it sometime between 1972 and 1978. It wasn’t a parody of any particular catalog (that I know of). It was just a collection of bizarre products. I seem to remember that the cover itself was black with a white oval with one of the products (maybe the folding globe) displayed inside. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-strange-fake-catalog/526447/4 "2010-01-26T01:13:46Z")
[High Weirdness by Mail?](http://www.amazon.com/HIGH-WEIRDNESS-MAIL-Ivan-Stang/dp/067164260X) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-strange-fake-catalog/526447/5 "2010-01-26T01:19:52Z")
No, I’ve tracked it down with Google! It was _The Catalog of Extraordinary Objects_ by Jacques Carelman Here’s an [example](http://storage0.dms.mpinteractiv.ro/media/401/401/6351/2348183/1/obiectedenegasit.jpg)of the sort of thing it contained. (From the French version.) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-strange-fake-catalog/526447/6 "2010-01-26T02:34:58Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > [High Weirdness by Mail?](http://www.amazon.com/HIGH-WEIRDNESS-MAIL-Ivan-Stang/dp/067164260X) That was one fun year of writing out simple “I find your ideas intriquing and wish a sample of your literature” requests. Of course, that was years before I got the Net!