A Crummy Commercial

I've mentioned the Lionel Communications Lab 3270 before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/lionel-communications-lab-mark-i.html  I saw this 3270 on Ebay in an unopened box: https://www.ebay.com/itm/167780230691  The semi-obligatory deflated price: In other words, it's actually cheaper than it was new ! They also had the Lionel Communications Lab 3272: https://www.ebay.com/itm/167780324136  This one is definitely the buy of the two based on value, (assuming that $39.95 marked on the box is accurate): Inflated price for the 3272: The cheapest person on earth defers on them both: "it could be a pig-in-a-poke" (or in this case, a sealed cardboard box.  And of course I'd open it, fiddle with it for 15 minutes and then set it aside :( Update:  I had watched both Ebay listings above, sure enough, in the early evening I got offers on both of 5% off, get thee behind me, Satan !  :)    Update 2025-9-10: Temptation is OVER:    Best Regards, Ch...

Youtube served an old documentary on the cartoon TV show: Jonny Quest     It is a fan made film but well done, there were a number things I found out about the show: 1) Doug Wildey was the guiding force of the show not Hanna or Barbera.  He was a comic book guy not a cartoon guy and the art work shows that. 2) The music was composed and conducted by Hoyt Curtin, like many shows of that era the music was great 3) there were apparently subsequent Jonny Quest iterations but from a brief viewing they don't seem to be as good as the original. 4) Jonny was voiced by Tim Matheson when he was 16.  The other voices were familiar to any old time radio fan, one I recognized was Cathy Lewis who played some of the female characters (there weren't too many). 5) only 1 season of 26 shows (that'd be equivalent to 2.5 seasons of Rick and Morty ) 6) rewatching the shows there is a resemblance between Jonny Quest and Clutch Cargo although Jonny Quest was a much better show.  B...

Hearing that Jim Lovell has died makes me sad.  Here is his wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Lovell  there is a high resolution version of this portrait on the wiki page Two things on Lovell:  he grew up in Milwaukee so naturally he was my favorite astronaut.  Second, he was something of a tinkerer - I remember seeing a video where he mentions creating a map light so that he could look at a map while flying his Navy plane at night.  Unfortunately something went wrong when he tried it on a night flight near Japan and his cockpit instruments went dark !  Getting home was a bit of an adventure (with the help of the bioluminescent wake of the aircraft carrier) but I suspect it cured him of trying similar stuff while flying for NASA  :) Here is a video where he tells the story (starts about 22 minutes in): He seemed to have a knack for getting out of tight situations, not just depending on luck but using his well-trained skill to work the proble...

I saw a version of this picture on Shorpy: source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017850811/  https://www.shorpy.com/node/27816  When I see kids holding rabbits I think of three things: 1) Hasenfus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Hasenfus  He was originally from Wisconsin - having a name like: "rabbit's foot" was NOT lucky for old Gene ! 2) That zoo in northern Denmark that wants pet owners to donate their pets for zoo predator food, yikes ! 3) My brief time as a rabbit owner as a kid.  I built a cage with chicken wire just like the ones in the photo above except that mine was painted white.  I don't remember if I had time to give the rabbit a name because one of the neighborhood dogs tunneled through that chicken wire without a problem.  I also remember Farmer Glaubitz's wife - she sold rabbits, one time several of us went to see her and there was only one rabbit left so she did "eenie-meenie" to pick a winner - that was the first time I ever ...

While thinking about my Grampa's watch I recalled this: I'm not sure what the purpose of these Beattie Jet lighters were, for pipes ?  Just for show ?  But the story I heard from my Dad was that the National Lead people would use these on an item painted with lead paint.  The jet flame would cause the paint to soften to the point that the lead in the paint would form little visible balls.  The point of doing this ?  I don't remember.  Maybe it was for comparison with other paints from other manufacturers ?  Or maybe just as a gimmick to impress the customers ? Here is a listing on Ebay for some kind of replacement jet piece: https://www.ebay.com/itm/177167725843  The pictures and video show the jet flame. As an idiot kid who fooled with fire I remember that it wasn't that impressive - it was basically one and done as I recall, then it had to cool down or ? I don't think it was used that much.  The Zippo lighter from the PX was the go-to for m...

I think any reasonable person knows that millionaires and billionaires are responsible for illegal immigration, for example, our President: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/report-reveals-pipeline-of-undocumented-costa-rican-immigrants-at-trump-club-a-very-open-secret/  Why aren't millionaires or billionaires put in jail or deported ?  HA ! But it made me remember this parody from Mad Magazine 110 (1967): from yellow pages for super heroes source: https://archive.org/details/mad-magazine-1967/MAD110/page/n39/mode/2up  Here's a simple, stupid solution to illegal immigration:  put a Trump or a Walton or some other millionaire or billionaire in prison and that hiring or banking or landlording will stop PDQ - and no prisons or airplane flights will be needed, those folks will go home on their own. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

I remember this book from when I was a kid: source: https://archive.org/details/rattlerattledump00geis  I don't know what happened to mine.  I also had some other books: Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel , Peter and the Wolf , Just so Stories and maybe others that are best forgotten.  I guess once you learn how to read there are so many more choices that the original faves get left behind.  But there's just something about listening to Mom or Dad read a story at bedtime :) source: https://archive.org/details/mikemulliganhiss00burt2/mode/2up  I *still* like it when a book has pictures ! BTW, I was thinking of Rattle-Rattle due to this Shorpy page: a crop of just the steam shovel source: https://www.shorpy.com/node/27792  They actually put up my comment on Bucyrus-Erie !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

Recently I've been trying to get in contact with people from the olden days.  While I've made some half-hearted tries at this before one new technique has become useful. Here is a nice bunch of street / telephone directories for Fox Point, WI: https://content.mpl.org/digital/collection/wfb/search/searchterm/whitefish%20bay%20and%20fox%20point%20directories/field/relati/mode/exact/conn/and These were compiled / sold by the Whitefish Bay Womens Club and contain a goldmine of info.  They aren't super easy to navigate but just being able to consult year after year of them is quite helpful.  Here is a 2 block chunk of my old street just before the Olsons moved in: Mr. Noeske was a custodian at Maple Dale School in the 1960s, man drove a big old Rambler The breakthrough for me was including the parents first names in internet searches.  I knew the kids first names but not always the parents.  Also some of the exact spelling of names is a lot different than they sounde...

The 1950s and 1960s had a LOT of fiction written about nuclear war.  Recently I encountered what I thought was the most effective piece of fiction on the subject:  Tomorrow !  by Philip Wylie.  This takes the form of an Old Time Radio show (for the Civil Defense) from 1956: https://archive.org/details/otr_civildefensewithorsonwelles It's really a well done program - and as you might expect it does come with a "commercial" for Civil Defense.  The cast includes Orson Welles as the narrator and Marshall Thompson (who I remember as Daktari on 1960s TV) as a character named Chuck Connor.  Maybe being a radio show makes it more effective with excellent original music and a really annoying siren over some of the dialog.   The book is available on Archive although I haven't read it yet: https://archive.org/details/tomorrow-philip-wylie-288-f-ocr As I say there are a bunch of shows and books on this subject but this one was worth an hour of my time.  I lis...

I was watching a video about the Safeguard ABM system: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhgYFFcg7Os Which was interesting but the thing that struck me was that pyramidal radar building in North Dakota: Which reminded me of this: I couldn't find an exact size of the building and it's hard to guesstimate but the round antenna arrays on each face are supposed to be about 13 feet in diameter.  However there are two concentric circles so is the smaller circle 13 feet across ?  That would make the building something over 60 feet tall - so much smaller than the great pyramids in Egypt - but still quite impressive. Here are a few links to info / photos on the ND pyramid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safeguard_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_R._Mickelsen_Safeguard_Complex   https://unfamiliar.land/the-stanley-r-mickelsen-safeguard-complex/ https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pyramid-north-dakota Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I saw this video: source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5XcIY3ui0EQ a 1956 Chevy !  We had one like that when I was a kid.  No fender skirts in the back though but two-tone red and white.  But I remember heat in relation to the Chevy: the Naugahyde seats which would become insanely hot in the summer - also the tube radio which took forever to warm up.  But unlike the Pike's Peak climber in that ad. our 56 Chevy was a 6 cylinder  which had a hard time maintaining speed on trips to the Kettle Moraine area of Wisconsin :)  Also, as I recall there weren't any liners in the wheel wells below the fins in the back or the headlights in the front so the sand and gravel and salt from the roads would pack in and eventually rust those four areas first.  It was a nice looking car but the '56 is the middle child of those classic Chevrolets of the 50s with the 1957 being the one that everyone likes. But remembering that car from the 1950s reminded me of this video: ...

I was watching the opening credits for Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery   source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0tGPxvBcdk But then I thought, wait a minute, wasn't a lot of the chase cribbed from A Hard Day's Night ? source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbg8T9r1DiQ And why is George running with one hand in his pocket ?  George, Ringo and later a couple of the pursuers all fall down  -  I blame those slippery leather soled shoes of the 1960s ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm