Not Picking Your Nose

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Text on Button THANK YOU FOR NOT PICKING YOUR NOSE
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Black text on an orange background

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Whether you call it "mining for gold", "picking boogers", or "clearing the bats from the cave", nose picking is widely regarded as bad manners and worse hygiene. In the vein of signage thanking people for not smoking or not stepping on the grass, this button shows appreciation for those who keep their fingers out of their noses.

Sources

SELTZER AP. NOSE PICKING. J Natl Med Assoc. 1963 Sep;55(5):451-2. PMID: 14049564; PMCID: PMC2642359.

Catalog ID IB0404

Little Hep Cat

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Text on Button I'M A LITTLE HEP CAT
Image Description

Illustration of a red and white cat wearing a black graduation cap on a yellow background with red text

Curl Text 36 Litho 7/8
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Hep Cat is a term to describe the hipsters of the 1930s and 40s. Hep Cats would dress, talk and act like the jazz performers they idolized. With the rising popularity of jazz in the 30s, “Young white people began to travel to African-American clubs and neighborhoods, especially Harlem, to embrace black music and dance”. This term would later be morphed into the word we use now: hipster.

Some popular "hep cat" jazz musicians of the time include: Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bing Cosby, Cab Calloway and Benny Goodman.

Sources

Ghandi, L. (2013, December 8). Don't You Dare Call Me A Hipster! I, Sir, Am A 'Hep Cat'. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/06/249275784/dont-you-d…

Catalog ID IB0411

Let's Lock Loins

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Text on Button Let’s Lock Loins
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Black text on a white background

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The phrase "Let's Lock Loins" dates back to the 1960's "free love" counter culture. 

Catalog ID IB0236

Invent a Sexual Perversion

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Text on Button Be Creative Invent a Sexual Perversion
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Purple text on a yellow background.

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“Be Creative, Invent a Sexual Perversion” was a phrase featured on merchandise originally sold in the Kazoo Bookstore on Fairfax in Los Angeles, California. This bookstore was one of several owned by the L.A. Free Press, the country’s first and most successful underground newspaper. Art Kunkin, a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), first launched The L.A. Free Press in 1964. While it labeled itself as a liberal newspaper, it took shots at both parties and the shortcomings of the country’s two-party system. It gained a substantial following after its reporting of the Watts Uprising in 1965. The bookstore and advertisements were once mentioned by The New Yorker’s, Renata Adler who had visited the store. Aside from wearable motifs like buttons, the store carried posters, cigarette papers, roach clips, and obscure books and pamphlets on various topics including drugs and Eastern religions.

Sources

Davis, M., & Wiener, J. (2020, April 14). Set the night on fire by Mike Davis, Jon Wiener. Los Angeles Review of Books. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/set-night-fire/

Catalog ID IB0195

I'll Try Anything Once

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Text on Button I'll Try Anything Once... TWICE IF I LIKE IT
Image Description

Red and white text on a brown background

Curl Text SAY IT WITH BUTTONS 1108 FRONT STREET LISLE, ILL 60532 (312) 968-7458
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Mae West (August 17, 1893 - November 22, 1980) was quoted saying this quirky line. West was a playwright and actress who was known for her sexual subjects. She wrote Sex,  Drag, The Wicked Age, Pleasure man and The Constant Sinner. In the early 1930s, saying lewd words in public could be reason to get arrested on moral charges. West's work was recognized by Hollywood, which led to parts in movies like Night After Night (1932), I’m No Angel(1933), Klondike Annie (1936) and My Little Chickedee’s (1939). In 1935, she became the second highest earner in the United States. In her later years, West performed similar plays as in her early days at a nightclub. During the same time, she published her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It (1959).

Sources

Mae West. (2014, April 2). Retrieved June 28, 2020, from https://www.biography.com/actor/mae-west

Catalog ID IB0499

I Do If You're A VOL

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Text on Button I DO... IF YOU'RE A VOL
Image Description

White text with a black outline on an orange background

Curl Text COLLEGEMANIA PO BOX 8547 GAINESVILLE FL 32605
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The University of Tennessee's athletic team is called the Volunteers, also referred to as the Vols. Their school colors are orange and white. Student athletes, who are known as Vols, work on using four main pillars during their athletic career: Communication, Trust, Warmth, and Intensity.

Sources

General Information. (2021). Retrieved 21 January 2021, from https://utsports.com/sports/2017/6/14/ot-10-about-html.aspx

Catalog ID IB0410

Chungnam Science High School

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Text on Button Ji-hyun, Moon Chungnam Science High School moonjp93@naver.com Dong-kyu, Lee Chungnam Science High School ldg0707@naver.com
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Photograph of two statues of people with red and blue text

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Chungnam Science High School was established in Gongju, South Korea in 1993 and is one of 19 science high schools in South Korea. Science high schools are public schools for gifted students interested in science and mathematics, selected by the ministry of education in Korea. Chungnam had its first graduating class of 30 students in 1996.

Catalog ID SC0028

William Howard Taft

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Photograph of William Howard Taft's head and shoulders in the center of the button surrounded by blue and white swirls and a blue outer edge

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Buttons made by The Whitehead & Hoag Co. Newark, N. J. U.S.A. Pat April 14, 1896, July 21, 1896

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William Howard Taft served as the 27th President of the U.S. from 1909- 1913. Before his presidency, Taft worked as a lawyer and a judge and served as Secretary of War under Theodore Roosevelt. He lost his second election to Woodrow Wilson; after his term, he served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Catalog ID PO0434