Bagsite of the month

Tom de Kort claims his new 't brakerke site is the "second Belgian site on barfbags". Nice collection, including some items I've never seen before. With handy clickable thumbnails. (April 2004)

Another new use for bags?

Email from a police science institute: Could I please supply samples of my dogshit bag collection? 

"Somebody tried to strangle a young man with a doggybag. This young man tried to take off the bag before dying. We found under the nails of the corpse some traces of plastic and we want to make sure it could be a doggy bag..."

Ewk - the poor victim... and what a way to die.

Naturally, I'm pleased to serve the cause of justice. I've chopped up my dogbags and have sent them off to the police institute. They've promised me more details when the case has gone through the courts. 

Note: Using bags as an asphyxiation tool works only of they are made of plastic. Paper bags are not sufficiently robust, and are usually too small, to be either placed over the head or wrapped around the neck. (April 2004)

New bag collectors' egroup launched

After many years of loyal service to the bagophile community, the old barfbag egroup has crashed: someone's computer has deluged it with junk mail, and the moderator has disappeared from the face of the earth. 

So we've launched a new egroup, imaginatively called barfbags@yahoogroups.com. Sign up by filling in your email address to the left and clicking the button. Or send a blank email to barfbags-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. The group's website is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/barfbags.

Get messages on the latest developments in bagdom, news of swaps, conventions, cool websites, and more! Contribute yourself by sending an email to barfbag@yahoogroups.com. (April 2004) 

Want to know more about vomiting?

Don't we all? Then click on Frequently Asked Questions about Vomiting. With sections on Nausea, Physiology of vomiting, Motion sickness (yes, it mentions barfbags!), Projectile vomiting, retching, and "dry heaves", Food poisoning, Gastroenteritis and more! (April 2004)

Wash with Barf

Want your underwear whiter than white? Then use Barf detergents! 

Barf comes in liquid, powder or solid form. Order now from Paxan Co. 

For the unenlightened, "barf" is an American term for "puke" or "vomit". In Farsi, it means "snow". That's ﻑﺭﺒ for those of you who can read Farsi script. (4 February 2004)

Pake the plane?

One hitherto unrecognized function of airsickness bags is to mystify passengers, thereby distracting them from clear air turbulence and bumpy landings.

China Eastern's latest bag provides a good example of this genre. Near the bottom of the bag is the inscription on the left. 

"Welcome to puke the plane?" speculates Bruce Kelly. Or "welcome to take the plane... perhaps a message up front to terrorists contemplating such an action to avoid any bloodshed?"

No such luck. Anke Scherer, a sinologist at Bochum University, says that the Chinese says Huanying chengzuo zai ci hangban, or "Welcome aboard this plane", or if you opt for the translation into Chinglish "You are welcome to TAKE the plane". (Huanying = welcome, chengzuo = take a train/ship/plane; zai = in/aboard; ci =
this; hangban = scheduled flight).

Thanks to Bruce for the image and Anke for the translation. Now all I need is an example of the bag itself. Anyone want to send me one? (4 February 2004)

Get your bags here

Horsleys is a new name in the bag supply business. The firm, based in Reading, UK, supplies "a range of block bottomed airsickness bags to suit your needs". Click here for more.

Thanks to George for the heads-up, and for a delightful package of Easyjet bags. (27 January 2004)

Bagwear

Here's "the shirt that made barf bags cool", from French baggiste Gilles Beger. Created for him by a professional designer from Kenzo, it features the Emirates cartoon, the Libyan Arab Airlines logo, and an ethnic motif from Air Afrique. Along with many other memorable bag designs. Still waiting for this shirt to appear in the Kenzo summer collection. (25 January 2004)

Bags in the press

Photo: John Baxter

British baggist Aidan Stradling reports on "a publication that hit the book shops shortly before Christmas.  It's a rather natty book called "Men and Collections". Coming from the same stable that produced "Men and Sheds" the previous year, it contains a series of cameo pen pictures and photographs of men and their weird and wonderful collections.  Well, you've guessed it - the sick bags are in there.  Pictured alongside yours truly.  Available from all good book shops - and amazon.co.uk, of course.  There are some rather amazing collections featured - definitely a book worth a look!

On the left is the pic of Aidan from the book. Hint: if you want to keep your bags in mint condition, do not spread them out on the floor and lie on them. 

I'm trying to get Aidan to take that vintage Air France bag out from under his elbow and to send it to me. (25 Jan 2004)

MADia coverage

Alaskan collector Bruce Kelly reports that barfbags have featured on magazine covers:

I ran across some old Mad Magazines in a flea market and noted some with covers that showed barf bags. I then proceeded to collect all 4 known
mags featuring barf bags on the cover. At the time I was also hopeful I might discover some clever bag inserts in the magazines, but no luck. They are just covers.  

The cover of Mad4 (shown on the left) illustrates perhaps another use for bags, although I would consider it quite a dangerous act to perform today, particularly with the advent of armed sky marshals.

Click here to see all four Mad covers. (15 January 2004)

Well into the second millennium 

The Bagophily collection now features 1431 bags. Actually, I have 1432 if you count the imaginary Eurostar bag. That total includes my collection of airsicknessbag look-alikes from buses, boats, hotels, dogs, restaurants and labs too.

No new records in 2003: 341 new bags. Compare that to 348 in 2002, 340 in 2001, and 216 in 2000. 25 so far in 2004. Check out the newbies here. (10 January 2004)

From bag to dust

Help - my bags are falling apart in my hands!

I picked up my Biodegradable Dog Tidy dogshit bag, and it crumbled into dust. 

What should I do? It didn't even have any dogshit in it!

Preservation hints here, please. (January 2004)

Sealing it in

The TANS Perú bag has a mysterious instructions "HERE AQUI" and a plastic strip-cum-handle fixed to it. I appealed for help on how to use it. Armando Valdez Power of TANS Perú's Marketing department kindly responded:

"I was taking a look to your web site and I noticed you are wondering how to use the strip plastic in our Air Sickness Bag. You have to tear one of the sides of the strip plastic and then wrap around the plastic bag to keep it closed."

What if there's no barfbag?

What should you do if you feel that queasy rumble in your stomach? You grope in your seat pocket, you pull out the airline safety card, the menu, the in-flight magazine, the catalogue of duty-free items, and a half-eaten sachet of stale peanuts... but there's no barfbag.

Sadly, this is not an unusual occurrence. Budget-strapped airlines are skimping on even basic necessities. Low-cost fliers charge you extra for seat cushions and visits to the loo. Burgeoning numbers of bag collectors rampage through aircraft, pillaging airsickness bags as they go.

The answer to your dilemma is on the left: puke into your neighbour's shirt pocket. "In an emergency: sometimes you don't have the little bag handy when you really need it", it says. 

20 bags for Christmas

Kevin Middleton of  Melbourne wanted to get rid of his bag collection, so he sent it to me. 20 bags new to this collection! I can't thank him personally as there was no return address on the bagpack that arrived in my letterbox. Many thanks, Kevin! (January 2004)

Aviation pioneer's barfbag found in jungle

If it's in the newspaper, it's gotta be true... According to a US newspaper, pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart made it across the Pacific before she was lost in 1937. Her barfbag "has been found" in near-perfect condition in the Kiribati  island of Nikumaroro.

DNA tests of the bag contents "match Earhart's".

That's what respected US supermarket tabloid Weekly World News revealed on 5 August 2003.

The find would make it one of the planet's oldest barfbags. The picture on the left certainly looks a lot better than many bags in my collection.

Click on the image for more.

Thanks to Bedford McIntosh for this scoop. (August 2003)

Bag design competition

The design on the left features the helpful advice, "If you're going to spew, spew in this".

The figure in the bag on the left is supposed to be me. And that's not a skirt - it's a sarong.

Click on the bags for a closer look.

Would you like your own designs featured? Then draw on a bag, scan it, and send it to me! (December 2003)

New use for barfbags

Barf smiley

Want a new  job? Right-click on one of the smiley icons on the left, save it to your hard drive, then use it in emails to your boss.

I've forgotten where I stole these smileys from. (December 2003)

Fly into the past

Does spam make you barf?

Instructions for use

Such a shame to throw away all those unused barfbags that somehow end up in your carry-on luggage. But they do come in surprisingly handy. Use them to store that delicious seafood pilaf that you couldn't quite bring yourself to eat on the plane. Or fill with water and use to transport live goldfish. Forgotten to bring little Jimmy's bucket to the beach? A bag makes a good substitute. And colleague Jim Green tells me that bags make excellent glove puppets.

Click here for more creative ideas for recycling bags.

Can we ever catch up?

Big Cheese, er, Big Bag, Niek Vermeulen, has added to his collection. The 2004 Guinness Book of World Records reports that he now has 3307 bags from 755 airlines. Check out Niek's entry in Guinness's website, and you can also learn about the highest toll from an airplane disaster and the most parachute descents by a woman.

In comparison, I'm still just what my wife calls a mickriger Kleinsammler ("miserable little collector"). 

That's Niek on the left on Air Force One (the Big Pretzel's plane), with a sheaf of Air Force One bags. He says that he had permission to take them...

Apparently Niek is interested in selling his collection. Click here for more. (30 May 2003)

Aussie bag broadcast

SBS Radio, an Australian public broadcasting station, aired a programme on barfbags on 13 November 2002. The programme features interviews with Oz (?) Dean, proprietor of the admirable Design for Chunks website, a stewardess experienced in onboard bag management, and me :-). Download it here (MP3, 1697 kb)

Here are some reviews of the broadcast:

"can we all please note that barfbags are not currently the no.1 conversation piece at australian dinner parties, however now that sbs has broadcast this bit of award winning journalism i dare say it will climb up the agenda. i myself cannot wait to sit down at the next barbie and discuss the finer points of the pleating and folds of a go-jet bag!"

"I'm so sad that I have just downloaded AND listened to this informative piece of investigative journalism.  (mental note to self: must get out more)"

Lost? Frustrated?

If you click on a link on this site that doesn't lead you to the bag you wanted...

The pinnacle of bag design

The award-winning Design for Chunks site has come up with a third collection of wonderful designs that airlines could use if only they had a little imagination. Check out these awesome designs here. You'll weep next time you reach into that seat pocket and pull out a boring, grey Lufthansa bag. (9 Oct 2002)

Plain bag?

Atlantic Airways before they went the Plain White Way.

It sounds almost rational. But here are some counterarguments:

Bag filling

Ever wondered what people put into their barfbags? Then visit www.airlinemeals.net, a website devoted to those appetizing morsels that appear unbidden on your tray table in the middle of the night.

More stuff stolen from airlines:

Editor's choice

Want a broader overview of the World of Bagophily? Check out the Links page. Not time to visit all the fine sites listed? Then take a brief tour to the following:

Ramassage des déjections canines

Er... that's "collecting dog excrement" in English. No, not a new hobby, but a messy battle being fought out on the streets of France. Check out the doggy bag page for more. 

Interested in airlines, and not just the contents of their seat pockets? There are lots of airline websites out there. Three of the best (ie, those that recognize the noble art of bag-collecting) are Crewstart, ThirtyThousandFeet and Ken's Aviation. Links to airlines, airline jokes (check out Crewstart's phoney airport information-desk announcements), dating for pilots and flight attendants, travel tips, and lots more. (25 May 2003)

Underbagged

What do Latvia, Liberia and Lesotho have in common? Yes, they all start with an L. What else? They're all missing from my barfbag collection.

What's the biggest country not represented? Chad. In terms of population? Nigeria. Other prominent absentees (coloured red in the map): North Korea and Rwanda. 

Major underrepresented portions of the globe are a swathe of Africa and chunks of Central Asia and Central America.

Donations from these areas especially welcome!

Centres of megabagdiversity are the USA (though many US bags are distressingly plain), the UK, Canada, Germany, Brazil and Indonesia. 

Click here for details. (6 Feb 2003)

On Her Majesty's Service

Britain's Food Standards Agency has issued a barfbag you can use while listening to your favourite politician speak. 

Er, no... actually, it's part of a campaign to reduce levels of food poisoning in the British catering industry. Click here for more (and no jokes about British cooking, please...) (15 Feb 2002)

For new baggists only

New to the world of bag collecting? Want to get a head start on your collection? Then send me an email, and I'll send you a randomly selected free starter pack from my surplus bag stock. There won't be anything rare, and you may end up with some duplicates, but at least you'll be able to show your friends a few more of these lovely cultural artefacts. Make sure you include your mailing address in your email. Offer good as long as stocks last. (27 Aug 2001)

Hungry for more?

Then check out the Olds page -- where old news goes when it reaches its sell-by date.

 visitors since 21 Sept 2001