Old Man Rant
- Thread starter Macfrommichigan
- Start date
shavefan
I’m not a fan
Dang!
simon1
Self Ignored by Vista
They are fun, and easy to build.
I do believe they are outlawed in several states. No one lets you have fun anymore, even way out in the country where you can't damage anything.
shavefan
I’m not a fan
Makes me wonder if the Wright brothers would be able to experiment, build, test, and invent an airplane today.
simon1
Self Ignored by Vista
As Forest Gump might say "Stupid is as stupid does".
I am an amateur radio operator. One way hams put up antennas is to launch a weight over a tree branch and then pull a wire over the branch to use as an antenna. There are lots of ways to do this: sling pouch as used by tree climbers, slingshot, fishing pole, etc. However, the most elegant way to do that is using a tennis ball launcher. Rather than relying on a flammable substance with unknown launching potential, you can purchase a launcher with an air canister that can be pumped up to a known pressure depending upon the height of the branch you wish to use as the antenna support. I have a friend who has one; it works quite well and will easily reach a branch 100 ft or higher.
Because these launchers use compressed air rather than a flammable substance, they are not defined as a firearm and so are not illegal. However, a rapidly moving tennis ball can do significant damage to both animate and inanimate objects whether powered by a tennis racket, potato cannon, or compressed air launcher.
Beer cans before they got all flimsy. I guess I would use soup cans these days. Held together with black hockey/electrical tape. Some of the guys got to the point of using the gas from plumbing torches for better speed reloading. Safe? Well our parents bought us lawn dart sets. One does learn from things that go wrong.
Another great summer activity was building hot air balloons from tissue paper. We made them about a yard high and a couple of feet across. string an aluminum pudding cup at the bottom and fill with rubbing alcohol. You needed a calm day or night. Let her fill up with hot air . . . and oh we used fishing line to make sure they couldn't go too far.
+1! My wife and I were once told by a talkative couple in their seventies (my guess) that a theater was not a library, and therefore it was perfectly acceptable to hold a conversation during the show.
My wife and I figured out a way around that one. We have not been to the movies in the past several years. We have a 65" 4K TV and watch our movies streamed on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Acorn TV. What we pay per month for all three is about what we would pay for a single movie plus drinks and popcorn at the movie theater.
That's precisely what I do now, too!
Jerks gotta get old too, ya know.
Alamo Draft House, a localish (Texas) chain, has a very strict policy. No Talking. No Texting. You get one warning, and then they kick you out. They really do. No refund. They put the policy in great big letters up on the screen just before the feature begins, so no excuses at all.
We don't go out to movies much, anymore. However, when we do, that's where we go. I don't care that I have to drive 30-45 minutes to get there.
Enforcement of good manners is almost unheard of today. Next time I find my self in Texas that is one place I'd like to visit!
I am reminded of one of Heinlein's novels, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Due to the close quarters required of inhabiting the Moon, and the dirth of female companionship, things like etiquette and good manners became a self enforcing thing, sometimes with lethal consequence. Then I read posts like Whilliam's and think, "what a missed opportunity."
Yep. Heinlein was a genius. They say the old west was a pretty polite place overall.
Theater as in live performance or a movie, i assumed live.
When i lived at the movies it was mostly at a rep cinema, people were there to see a movie, reverential attention, entirely different clientele. When i did rarely go to the Cineplex/commercial places i'd come away wondering why i even bothered, always a poor experience.
dave
This was at an upscale motion picture theater, and not a mall multiplex. It happened some 25 years ago, and the memory has never left me, largely, I guess, because it seemed so bizarre to witness one's elders behaving in such a way. After the show, one of the couples approached us in the parking lot, itching to argue about the whole thing. We just ignored them and drove away, which I am sure ticked them off royally.
