The Modern Rabbit

Peeing on a stick has become a rite of passage for both those struggling to get pregnant and those who would rather not find themselves with child at this time. Last year's two hot procreation films, Juno and Knocked Up both had scenes taking advantage of that universal feeling of anticipation and/or anxiety we feel when waiting for that little window to display its character.

Thanks to a recent post on the source-for-everthing-cool Metafilter, I found The Thin Blue Line, a history of the home pregnancy kit, done a couple of years ago by the National Institutes of Heath. With a timeline (3000 years ago, women urinated on wheat and barley seeds; if they germinated and grew, so would she) and a swell gallery of vintage 1970s ads, the site is definitely worth a look. The best part? A delighfully comprehensive walk thorough pregnancy testing on television, from Marge Simpson's use of Barnacle's Bill's Home Pregnancy Test to Brenda's parents finding her pregnancy test in the trash, the stick seems to have found its way on to three decades of T.V. shows.