A Crummy Commercial

I saw this ad for a Mattel bike, never knew that Mattel sold a bicycle !: how did I miss this ? Here's another ad for the noise maker accessory only: source: https://corporate.mattel.com/brand-portfolio/v-rroom So I was wondering about the sound, how was it, how loud ? Looking on Youtube I found some videos: Bill Conrad providing the voiceover ! source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-y8mG8cRv4 source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzGqY2zHuSo source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-EGZwAdHJo source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZMkQ-JTPjU How did I live without one of these ?  Basically with playing cards clothes-pinned to the spokes - also I probably aged out ?  9 years old in 1964, too big for that kid stuff :) How did it make the sounds ?  It was patented (always a good place to check): https://patents.google.com/patent/US3160984A/en%C2%A0 It was mechanical NOT electronic: I don't quite understand it - I'm an EE not a mechanical engineer :)  But i...

Bing had this as the background pic for August 19, 2026: The USN stubby carrier plane is a Brewster Buffalo XF2a-1 from 1938 in the full size wind tunnel that would later become NASA Langley.  Unfortunately it was torn down but still, amazing scale ! source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-Scale_Wind_Tunnel The Brewster Buffalo wasn't preferred by the Navy, they liked the Grumman Wildcat F4 and Grumman Hellcat F6 better.  But those wacky Finns liked the Buffalo: https://historynet.com/brewster-buffalo-finland/ When I was a kid I built a Grumman F6F Hellcat model plane.  I can't remember the vendor, probably Revell but maybe Monogram ?  It seems to me that AMT was the goto for car models.  Now that I think of it while the propeller turned there wasn't much else you could do with a model plane, except look at them, maybe dust them (or maybe not ;).  The upstairs room in our house in Fox Point had two built-in dressers with small display shelves above...

Keeping on the grade school in the 1960s theme, I was reminded of my encounter with the urban phenomenon: crossing guards.  We moved to Fox Point in fall 1961 where I went to first grade at Indian Hill School.  Here's the class picture (I'm at the lower right): source: https://archive.org/details/MapleDale/Maple%20Dale6/page/n3/mode/2up For some reason I remember Mrs. Smith as being really OLD  :)     I HATE the fact that 4 of those 21 kids are dead in 2026 :(   Now except for maybe one time (that was a civil defense thing where school was let out early and we walked home from Maple Dale) I usually rode the bus, at least in the lower grades.  The suburbs didn't have sidewalks or crossing guards or even that many stop lights.  So it was probably asking a lot for a 4, 5 or 6 year old kid to walk 1.8 miles unsupervised to school and back home. Bing chose this route to Indian Hill where I went to 1st grade . Bing doesn't like direct rou...

As I kid who started school in the 1960s I immediately recognized this publication I came across recently: The scan is from this wonderful blog: https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-weekly-reader-1960-1966.html I will be spending more time reading that blog.  I started first grade in 1961 so I *might* have seen this one while attending Indian Hill: And this 1/2 page about John Glenn was from 1962 when I we had all moved to the big school: Maple Dale: I really don't remember much specifically about My Weekly Reader except for one incident that I remember clearly.  This must have been in 1961 or 1962.  President Kennedy had started a new project called The Peace Corps in 1961.  One thing the teachers did was have students read aloud from My Weekly Reader .  I remember one girl was called on to read and when she got to Peace Corps she instead said peach crops - well as kids will do we all laughed.  Now that I think of the incident it must have been t...

I don't remember ever seeing or hearing about this: It reminds me of the Kellogg's submarine mentioned here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/02/kelloggs-submarine.html But the Power-Sub is much bigger than the Kellogg, about a foot long.  The magic pills, baking soda and fruit acid (ascorbic or citric ?) probably aren't available though. Of course it is patented: https://patents.google.com/patent/US2708810A/en Here is one on Ebay, $90 !!  https://www.ebay.com/itm/377247431224 I'll pass on that :)   The semi-obligatory inflated price (done twice, the regular site was down): Update: got this offer later in the day: That's still too much for me. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I've mentioned one of my grade school teachers, Mr. Peterson, before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/06/contracts-mr-peterson-7th-grade.html Recently I was reminded of the book: Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck: https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20220145 I don't remember the exact time or context (probably 7th grade) but Mr. Peterson wanted me to read the book.  Probably just because my name was Charles ?  And the Charley in the title is a dog, a big old French Poodle dog  :) I did read it (it's a travel book - all authors seem to write travel books, even Thoreau :) - the only thing I remember from the book is that at one point Steinbeck encounters buxom women - it was remarkable so he wrote it down :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

C'mon AI, you can do better than this: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLD29BMGu48 This is what Mike Kovak would have used, even in the late 1950s early 1960s, a 4 x 5 Speed Graphic (or equivalent), here is Charles Bronson as Mike Kovac holding one: I actually have two Kodak Duaflexes (the camera in the thumbnail) around here somewhere.  One I bought, the other was a gift from a nice lady in Whitefish Bay when I was a kid.  It took decent pictures but no, it wasn't capable of newspaper quality ! Here's a nice page on the Kodak Duaflex, with this photo of Vivian Vance: The Duaflex suits Vivian Vance better than Charles Bronson source:  https://www.jeremymuddphoto.com/blog/2023/8/27/kodak-duaflex-iv The focusing was strictly by guess, the finder was only for framing the shot.  With a camera like a Rollei the photographer would compose and focus the picture using the top lens.  The Duaflex exposure could be varied but only slightly.  It used 620 ...

I finally got around to making a light source to use with my copy stand, DSLR and negative holder, as first mentioned here:    https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/light-bulb-dummy-load.html It uses an empty KLIM dry milk can - BTW the real airmen portrayed in The Great Escape supposedly used the KLIM tins from their Red Cross Parcels for various escape tunnel items, so there is a long history of repurposing old KLIM tins. source:  https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205402300     I took an unused IEC power cord from some item and cut off the female connector.  Then stripped back the wires and connected them to a Leviton keyless lamp holder (keyless means no switch).  The lamp holder is screwed to a piece of wood which is fastened to the KLIM tin. gotta connect that ground wire to the tin ! I used a rubber gasket around the hole punched in the tin and tied a knot in the cable for a strain relief.      A round diffuser from my ...