expo67 — Montreal, Canada Ashtray.
Expo 67 was a Category One World Fair. It “set the single-day attendance record for a world’s fair, with 569,000 visitors on its third day.” The next world fair will be held in Milan in 2015.
It was sitting on the top of a bookshelf, gathering dust
So in Ontario, where stats where easy to find, there are apparently more people who smoke now than in the 1960s. Where are they all hiding? I was in Toronto two years ago and didn’t particularly notice many smokers.
Today I brushed by a smoker, and was for an instant, compellingly brought back to my smoking years. I felt a rush of pleasure, the hit of nicotine. The quick and instantaneous lift. I made a few friends when I smoked. The huddling against the icy wind must have been the bond.
You can download this as a wallpaper from http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/expo/fullscreen/e000988791_e.html – kinda obsolete itself as the sizes it refers to are 800×600 and 640×480!
Status: Finish reading Arcades Project (itself unfinished) by Walter Benjamin. Probably have to start at the beginning as I started reading it over 10 years ago.
Kill-ratio: 28:2/ 14:1
(captioned images don’t count – lire les règles)
Alt-title: Untitled Object No. 316 For Butting Out of Your Neighbour’s Business
Obsolescence Project 
I didn’t know about Tesla. (a genius:) Agreed, who knew there were so many.
The props for smoking were so good in those days (marble based table lighters being another one). Love the light you’ve captured in the photographs. Beautiful and absolutely right for the object.
Thanks Richard! I never know with these ones I photograph at home, sans the “neutral” space, but I felt it fit for these especially. Marble based lighters, I’m not sure I’ve seen one. Hmmm…
I guess ashtrays are kind of obsolete now fewer people smoke and those who do are relegated to huddling in doorways, but this is a great object. Definitely one to keep!
Yes, it is quite a treat.
The year really dates this thing! I just looked up a list of World Fairs to find that there’s been loads of them… So I’m guessing that they’re not as high-impact theses days as the Great Exhibition of 1851 is still recalled as a momentous thing over here.
I almost posted the list of World Fairs as I was impressed there had been so many indeed! 1851 still actively recalled, neat:)
Hey, I’m not joking. I would have thought, from everything I’ve heard, that the Crystal Palace fair was a standalone event and not part of a long history of world fairs. We even seem to have had one in the Millennium Dome in 2000 but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that. I knew Tesla exhibited at some world fair, somewhere, but apart from that I had no clue to the rest!