I ran across this old chestnut today and it amused me: An incoming executive is replaced and the outgoing executive hands over three envelopes saying, “Open these one at a time when things get tough.” A couple months go by, and things get tough, so the new executive opens the first envelope. It says, “Blame… Continue reading Prepare three envelopes
Category: You May Be Old
If you know what these are, you are old. Part 27.
Squishy and filled with polystyrene (the synthetic polymer, not the X-Ray Spex front-woman) these were in their heyday in the 1970s. The one I had was red.
If you know what these are, you are old. Part 26.
The answer is not “spreadsheets,” but it could be in a few years. This is the Software Arts program, that was THE killer application for the Apple ][. Lotus 1-2-3 pretty much killed it four years later. Did you guess “VisiCalc?” You are right!
If you know what these are, you are old. Part 25.
These things used to go in the front of two D cell batteries (remember those?) and actually lit up! They got dimmer and dimmer as the batteries wore out. They eventually stopped working at some point either by simply getting old or when they got bumped too hard. Now they’d be LEDs and would use… Continue reading If you know what these are, you are old. Part 25.
If you know what these are, you are old. Part 24.
A long, long time ago, banks (remember those?) used to issue these. You could get plain blue ones for free, sometimes, but you could also order them with different backgrounds, like this bald eagle. You used to write on them with a pen (remember those too?), put them in an envelope with a stamp (still… Continue reading If you know what these are, you are old. Part 24.
If you know what these are, you are old. Part 23.
It used to be that these were absolutely everywhere! For a dime, or then a quarter, you could reach your home to update your parents on your schedule or on your whereabouts or to ask for a ride home. New York City removed its last one of these on May 23, 2022. Cell phones helped… Continue reading If you know what these are, you are old. Part 23.
If you know what these are, you are old. Part 22.
These date back to at least 1965. Some sources say as early as 1948 or 1954 though. They help with encryption. They are subject to patent US3387396A. They are groovy and fun to look at. Feeling old?
If you know what these are, you are old. Part 21.
Let me be clear on this one, knowing what these are doesn’t make you old. If you had a player in your car to play these, then that makes you old! What officially killed these was the auto-reverse cassette player. Once there was no need to flip over the cassette, it didn’t matter how many… Continue reading If you know what these are, you are old. Part 21.
If you know what these are, you are old. Part 20.
Not sure what this is? Cannot predict now. Ask again later. If you would like to see all the possible answers, check this out.
If you know what these are, you are old. Part 19.
Before there was television. Before TikTok. Before YouTube, there were: View-Master™ cards. Fourteen transparencies in seven pairs, giving binocular depth perception. High-tech for its time. View-Master™ is a trademark of Mattel.