What Makes a Post Freshly Press-able: Bacon In a Toaster

Every day, a handful of WordPress.com bloggers are featured in Freshly Pressed. And every day, many more wonder, “What do I have to do to get Freshly Pressed?”

Well, it’s time to reveal what the folks who push the launch button are thinking. Each week, we’ll take a close took at one post and why we thought it was Press-worthy. We hope we can provide insight into the process and give you tips and tools to make your blog the best it can be.
________________________________________________

When we think about what we once imagined “the future” would be like, lots of us have the same initial reaction as Bohemian Radio: when do I get my flying car already?

Or at least a personal jetpack; 2012 isn’t quite living up to 20th century science-fiction’s promises. Bohemian Radio’s latest post, Bacon in a Toaster: A Future Too Awesome To Happen, takes a closer look at 1975′s idea of the future-that-isn’t.

The post didn’t just draw us in because of the idea of toaster bacon (although that might be what got us through the front door), but because it was just plain fun. Sometimes, we like to read something that educates, inspires, or that we can relate to viscerally–but sometimes, we just want to crack up.

It made us laugh. A lot.

Consider his description of the Hi-Fi Sphere, a record player gone futuristic by virtue of its Sputnik-esque design:

Long-playing Hi Fidelity records are round. Rolling Stones are round, Barry White is round. Your ears are round. Your head is round, and your face-talking hole is round. So should your high-fidelity, sound-barking, audio-making equipment set be: Round. EXTRA BONUS: Round(ish) speakers on an extendo-matic telescoping antenna-looking thingy, for maximum head-injury potential. When not in use, the giant round sound thing closes to form a perfectly symmetrical aluminum sphere, blending in naturally with all your other giant ball-shaped décor.

You had us at “face-talking hole.”

While we were wiping away tears of laughter, it made us think about bigger questions.

Reading about 1975′s idea of Future Television–wired-antenna-ready, and replete with multiple analog clocks for ease of global timekeeping–reminded us of how little we can actually predict about what technology will look like 30 years from now, and how bad we are at guessing what kinds of tools will actually make life easier and better.

When we think about what the world will look like in 30 years, we’re naturally constrained by our experience of the world today. But as technology advances, in spurts and bounds, it changes the ways we relate to it, the ways we use it, and how we’d like it to function. The Future Television  seems absurd to us today, knowing what we like our TVs to do and how we use them; how absurd will our idea of a big honking 72″ television seem to our grandkids, when they’ve got satellite receivers grafted directly onto their retinas?

Did we mention the Turkey Gun?

Perhaps we shouldn’t find the Turkey Gun so absurd in a world that has embraced Go-Gurt (or “Frubes” for you Brits), but this description made us guffaw:

Based on absolutely no evidence or experience, the top futurologists of 1962 determined that earthly utensils, dishes and even solid food itself would be absolutely useless, if not deadly – and possibly Communist – in 1975 outer space. The answer? Based on the same physics principles that modern, 21^st century pastry bags employ, this marvelous “Expelling device screws onto punctured can and is operated by squeezing to force food through the nipple.” Say that again: “Force food through the nipple.” Science!

Laughter lowers blood pressure and stress hormones, increases energy and creativity, and just makes us feel good. Do we need a better reason than that?

(Before you leave a comment: yes, we know this post has a few, er, choice words. To our eyes, the few four-letter words in this post weren’t used gratuitously and flowed from the bluntly informal tone that made the piece so funny to us.)

What did you think of this choice? Will you read more from Bohemian Radio?

For more on Freshly Pressed, check out last week’s Freshly Press-able post, read our roundup of Editors’ Picks for August, or read So You Want to Be Freshly Pressed.