Illustrated image of bare legs and buttocks with running shoes. Black text and motion lined text on an orange background.

Although the act of streaking has been popular since the mid-1960s, the term "streaking" was first used in 1973. The term was coined during a mass nude run at the University of Maryland. Streaking is different from nudism, because the streaker intends to be noticed by an audience. It is also different from "flashing" in that it is not intended to shock the victim. Perhaps the most widely seen streaker in history was 34-year-old Robert Opel, who streaked across the stage flashing the peace sign on national television during the 46th Annual Academy Awards in 1974. The high point of streaking's pop culture significance was in 1974, when thousands of streaks took place around the world. A wide range of novelty products were produced to cash in on the fad, including buttons, patches, and t-shirts.

Read more about the History of Streaking Buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

Blue inverted triangle with blue and white stars and stripes at the bottom point of triangle. Above the triangle is the text written in white bubble letters outlined in blue on white background. 

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Image of a school bus with black text and yellow background.

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A grinning cartoon striped cat drawn in black and white has the word “GRIN” in uppercase letters above its head.  Located at the bottom are the words “and ignore it” written in lowercase.  The illustrator’s last name is written next to the cat.  The text is black, and the background is light blue.

This is Sandra Boynton's humorous take on the phase “grin & bear it”.  Ms. Boynton is an award winning American author, illustrator and humorist. She began her career designing greeting cards for Recycled Paper Greetings in the 1970’s.  In the mid 1980’s, she sold over 80 million cards a year.  She has authored and illustrated over fifty books for children and adults.  Recently, Ms. Boynton has added songwriting and music producing to her repertoire.

Red heart on a white background with four white hearts inside in a diagonal line spelling out "LOVE" with an arrow through them.

Love is a strong affection for another person or thing. Love can also indicate a romantic desire. Love is used here as an acronym: Lord Our Vision Enlarge, which refers to an idea in the Christian Bible that Jesus wants to enlarge people's vision to see God and his kingdom the way Christ does.

This is one of many variations of a heart shape. The heart shape is a graphic symbol representing an expression of love. The use of the heart shape originated in the Middle Ages, though it wasn’t used to symbolize love until the 15th century. Today, it is frequently used on romantic items to indicate a specific love of something. 

The image of an arrow through a heart often refers to the Greek deity Eros and/or the Roman deity Cupid often depicted as a young boy with wings and a bow and arrow which he uses to strike people into falling in love with each other.

Black text on a white background with a fly

Whitehead & Hoag Co. was one of the first companies to produce patented celluloid pinback Button. The company specialized in advertising and political campaigns and produced unique novelty items featuring whimsical designs.

Long before the phrase "fly" indicating a person was good looking or well put together became popular from In Living Color’s “Fly Girls” dance troupe in the 1990s, the term “fly” was used as an adjective as early as the 1850s. Charles Dickens’ 1858 tale, "Arcadia", uses fly as slang for a quick-witted person. An article written in 1999 by Les Aldridge and published by Random House cites that in the 1870s, “the National Police Gazette wrote about ‘the young...men about town who think it is awfully 'fly' to know tow-headed actresses’”, using fly to describe something as attractive and cool.

Red text on a white background

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Red text centered on yellow background.

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Black button with white text. 

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White text on a black background

A percentage in mathematics is a number ratio expressed as a fraction of 100. To state “100%” means all of something or a perfect score. It is often used as an expression for agreeing with someone or something fully and completely.

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