History
The Tweet from Earth
the first transmissions were short wave and medium wave bands (AM radio). The good news is signals in these areas of the spectrum bounce off the ionosphere and allow listeners to tune in from around the world. The bad news is the signals never make it through the atmosphere, so alien listeners would be out of luck.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Do It Yourself Sputnik
On the evening of October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 was launched into low Earth orbit. Sputnik 1, like most technological products, is not quite the marvel it once was. Even at the time in 1957, it was designated by its creators as the “simple satellite”.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Letters from Grandma
Grandma had her finger on the pulse of the town. While the names changed from letter to letter, the circumstances were always the same… and they weren’t good.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )August 8, 1974
“Listen to this,” she said. “This is history. You’re going to remember this for the rest of your life.” She was right.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Flunking the Turing Test
The TRS-80 version of ELIZA struggled to make conversation from whatever words could fit into 4,000 bytes of memory. It was like having a conversation with a Magic 8-Ball.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Saving the Fourth
You can imagine my surprise when – come 2:00 in the morning – I had no thunderous blasts rattling the window, no debris raining down on the roof. In fact, I didn’t hear anything: no hooting, no whoo-ing, no profanity. Even the hair band music that thumps off the siding of the houses in the cul-de-sac behind us was silenced.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Sounding Off
While things I see have given me nightmares, it’s my sense of hearing that seems to dig deeper into my brain. Certain sounds instantly generate that primitive fear “fight/flight” response.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Past Sins Revisited
David loved to argue. He was passionate if not always correct. I learned a lot from arguing with my brother (mostly that it was pointless to do so).
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The Elvis Alternative
I said I wanted a “hippie wedding”; to be barefoot in a meadow, maybe take our vows by a stream. Meka was on the same wavelength. She thought it would be nice to get married with a few friends and close family in her parents’ backyard.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Chalk One Up to Experience
Jack Benny created one of the first “sitcom families”. It consisted of Jack and the regular cast along with a number of frequent minor characters, including a put-upon sales clerk that seemed to work at every store Benny visited.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Explorers Above and Below
While the Trieste was technically traveling only seven miles, round trip conversation time was fourteen seconds; five times longer than the lag the Apollo astronauts had when they were on the moon.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Microwave Memories
The explosion had literally blown the door off the microwave. It was hanging open by one hinge and – to my horror – it was still on! We dropped to the floor to dodge the deadly radiation.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )For the Record
I found out my cylinders were the two-minute variety. I liked the Amberola players that were integrated into a wooden cabinet. However, I was told these were only for the later four-minute cylinders. I would need to get a standard model phonograph that looked like a big wooden lunchbox.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Movies Under the Stars
Daniel and I drove down to the Cascade, one of a dozen remaining drive-in theatres in Illinois. They don’t charge by the car anymore, it’s individual admission now. On the plus side, you can bring in your own food.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )Shall We Play a Game?
The problem was the “strategy”. A number generator would pick one at random, check to make sure the space hadn’t already been played and draw it on the screen. There was no intelligence. I might have two X’s going across the top row and the computer would pick the lower right corner. I win.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Thoughts on the Passing of Millvina Dean
I’ve always felt like a single thread intertwined in the middle of a patchwork quilt that makes up our history. As I asked my mom and dad about the past, Daniel asks me now about watching the Bears win a Super Bowl, remembering when President Nixon resigned, seeing Scooby Doo on television when it was brand new.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Trashy Treasures
I remember David had a map of Chicagoland tacked up on the wall in his bedroom. The suburbs were all color coded based on what night their trash was put out for collection.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Home Small Home
If I had to describe our house, I’d call it “cozy”. It’s the second smallest model available in our subdivision. However, that’s a relative measurement. Our first house is about the same size – square footage wise – as my parents’ last house together.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )A Long Time Ago…
“Sorry, sir,” said the boy behind the glass. “It’s opening weekend.” My dad continued to pantomime protest. If we had been at a ball game, I’m sure the umpire would have changed his call.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Making a Computer Sing
Orchestra-80 had four “voices” that could play notes simultaneously. This allowed us to not only play the tune, but the chords as well. However, more abilities meant more work for us. Notes were converted to numbers based on how close they were to Middle C (which was zero), whether they were sharp (+) or flat (-), and how long the note should be played (quarter notes were 4’s).
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )New Use for Old Computer
t was a monster, running a 486 processor at 33 megahertz. This was at a time when 386 machines were considered “servers”. It was fast; so fast most DOS games available at the time were unplayable. It was taller than our mini fridge and housed a dozen full-sized bays in its solid steel innards.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )Past and Future Prairies
In the 1830’s, a man named John Deere (yes, there was a real John Deere) invented a type of metal plow that could cut through the dense soil and over the next century almost all of Illinois was cultivated: corn and soybeans and finally boxy houses.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Thank You, Shania Twain
Meka had an old cat – Coco – that made her home down in the basement on our couch. She didn’t meow, but she purred like no one’s business. One evening, Coco came waddling over to inspect Daniel, purring like a motor with a bad bearing. Daniel stopped in mid-cry, eyes wide with astonishment at the sound. Coco was our new best friend.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Hey, Hey, We Were the Monkees
It was my dream that we could be just like the Monkees. There were four of us and there were four of them. Out of our group, I was the only one who played any kind of musical instrument, but – even then – I didn’t see that as a major obstacle.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Welcome! You Have Porn!
I had been connecting to computers for years, primarily via bulletin board systems. However, I could only connect to one computer at a time that way. And – unless I had a lot of money to put towards the phone bill – I couldn’t connect to a system unless it was nearby.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Spider Hunting
Last year we had a couple of garden spiders that were as colorful as Pepper, our rental parrot. I left them alone out there to spin their webs, catch their bugs and crawl around wherever they pleased. In the fall, if I found them in the house, they were dead.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )College Memories: Hair!
I needed to be ready to sing a song between the years 1965 and 1975. I picked Norwegian Wood by the Beatles. I quickly figured out I was in trouble when I showed up with a cassette of Rubber Soul to sing along with. Everyone else brought sheet music.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )On the Subject of Poetry
I wrote that line and had some ideas I wanted to convey. But it was still too early. The emotion I felt was too deep. It came from somewhere in my reptilian brain and defied any attempt to put it into language, short of a cross between a low growl and a plaintive howl to the sky.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Memory – Smaller Size Me
It had been determined the Styrofoam Quarter Pounder boxes were going to outlast the human race in our landfills, so Corporate was switching to biodegradable boxes and larger paper wrappers for the big sandwiches. Ironically, the big drinks were being poured in more permanent plastic cups.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Ten Years After
Columbine wasn’t the first school shooting. It wasn’t the worst shooting. However, Columbine touched a nerve in me. The night before the shootings, Meka and I had spent a couple of hours on the phone, going through baby names. We had picked out “Daniel”, but we were still working on the middle name.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )A War to End All Wars?
However, military planning and political maneuvering behind the scenes over the previous quarter century had created a vast Rube Goldberg contraption designed to plunge the European continent into total war.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )Being Kind in Rewind
I am old enough to remember when VHS looked good. We got our first VHS VCR when I was ten. The tuner in our VCR was probably better than the old dials on the TV we had at the time and the lack of resolution of VHS tape actually served as “noise reduction”, smoothing out the static.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Good Bad Service
Like waiting in line at Wal Mart; it just comes with the territory. Did you think you would get away with paying low prices without consequences? Some people might complain, make a stink, ask to see a manager. The rest of us wait with Soviet style patience
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Easter Egg Quest
Generally, our hiding places come in three skill levels. One year, I covered an egg with a note that said THERE’S NO EGG UNDER HERE.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )MMP Video Memories – Attack of the Monster
Dave put on his Spectreman bag and Todd was dressed as the Transvestite Scuba Diving Monster from Hell. We staged a big fight in their backyard – it should have been funny. It was, we ran into a problem that would plague us throughout the course of Spectreman. With the bag on his head, Dave couldn’t see a thing.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )MMP Video Memories – The World’s Worst Imitation Japanese Movie
Our Spectreman philosophy was born. With the production limitations, it would be next to impossible to create believable special effects, so we decided to create unbelievable special effects. The Avon boxes became the city. An old black chair became the attacking airplane. We were set except for a main character. Dave thought of Spectreman, so he got to be the hero.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )On the Subject of Discovery
The old astronomy books were so confident. Of course Mercury was locked with one side permanently facing the sun and the other draped in the darkest night. Everyone knew there was plant life on Mars. It was obvious Venus was covered in an ocean of seltzer water… or petroleum… or a desert.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )For Pregnancy
We had a cabinet in our kitchen that held all the vitamins. My dad took ones called One-A-Day. That made sense. I knew he took them daily. My vitamins were from The Flintstones and they were chewable. That meant they didn’t leave a horrific taste in your mouth like the One-A-Day vitamins did.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Like Long Hair
In elementary school, I had a bowl cut (because my mom cut my hair and – I think – she used a bowl). Later in high school, we could afford to go somewhere and get our hair cut. I had it parted down the middle and feathered on the sides.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Radio Memories – Donut Run
I did have access to the station van. I also used it for donut runs in the middle of the night. “Station business” was a nebulous term; the way I saw it, WPGU ran on donuts, coffee and cigarettes just as much as electricity.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )My Soft Spot for Hardware
My house can be compared to a computer graveyard. I kept my first PC – a 486 SX – less for nostalgia and more for money. It cost me $2,500 back in the day. All of my other computers put together didn’t cost me that much. I can’t just let it go.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )College Memories – Fake ID
I’d never seen him so excited. It was all he could talk about. He told me what bars he was going to hit, what he planned to drink. I didn’t see what the big deal was; he already drank a lot without being able to get into bars. But I kept my opinions to myself.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )The Rest of the Story
Year after year, for better or worse, there is a common cast of characters you listen to on the radio, watch on television or see on the sidelines. They become the people you see everyday, like the folks in the neighborhood, familiar faces that you would smile and offer a wave to if you see them on the street. You smile at their eccentricities; they become another thread in Chicagoland lore. You can forgive them almost anything.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )“Stormin’ Norman” Van Lier (1947 – 2009)
The Bulls battled all the way to game seven and they kept it close through much of the game, but ultimately came up short. That was as close as the Bulls would get to the championship until the Jordan era, when Bob Love’s number would be hanging from the rafters, Jerry Sloan would be coaching the Jazz and Norm Van Lier would be analyzing his old team on television.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Thoughts on the Passing of Johnny “Red” Kerr
I don’t think the term “fanboy” was in vogue at the time, but we all knew what it meant and we took great pains to avoid it. None of us wanted to be caught gasping like a fish in the presence of someone famous. I can remember one time when fame overwhelmed us all.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )High School Memories – Lottery Tickets
we managed to kill the better part of an hour while Dave tried to screw up enough courage to pick Playboy off the rack. He wanted me to buy one too, but I refused. I already had a subscription to Playboy. I wasn’t going to pay newsstand prices for articles I wasn’t going to read.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Surprise Inside!
Daniel ordered the Happy Meal and it came with a video game. I was assuming when they said video game, they meant “video game”. I figured it would be a little plastic box, similar in shape to a Wii or an Xbox, with maybe a sticker for a screen or possibly a little light. Imagine my surprise when Daniel pulled out an actual game.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )A Fond Farewell to Analog TV
The NBC and CBS affiliates were no longer on the air at all as far as analog broadcasting was concerned. However, the ABC station was still broadcasting. In between the snow and the static, I managed to make out a public service announcement about the digital switchover. The color kept flickering in and out, making it kind of hard to watch. I wasn’t getting enough of a signal for the closed captions to read more than a few garbled words here and there.
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