From: carole@rembrandt.Sun.COM (Carole Parker)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Odds sods and cootdom [was: Re: A grinning Nightstalker]
Date: 26 Sep 1992 09:05:52 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: rembrandt

In article <BuvztJ.70D@cs.columbia.edu> korz@cs.columbia.edu (Frederick Korz) writes:
>In article <BuurJJ.Mu8@news.cso.uiuc.edu> trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Barbara Trumpinski) writes:
>>niles says:
>>
>>>>One thing that I have been wondering is some generic questions that
>>>>can be used to determine when one is an old coot.  Unfortunately the
>>>>ones that I come up with are almost always flawed in not applying
>>>>worldwide.  Some examples:
>>
>>>>1. Where were you when Kennedy was shot. (USA only)
>>><...>

In the third grade.  I remember our instructor informing us that President
Kennedy had been shot, and we were being sent home early that day.  Some
kids were real happy about that, but I was saddened.  Losing Kennedy was
worse than losing my grandfather the month before.

>>>>Anyone have any ideas for more universial old coot tests?
>>
>>firecat responds:
>>
>>>These days, it seems that it's almost an old coot test to know where you
>>>were when Lennon was shot.
>>
>>
>>kitten adds her $.02...."well....when kennedy was shot i was in second
>>grade...and when lennon was shot i was teaching high school.
>>
>>i also saw the beatles on ed sullivan and the original star trek as a
>>first run t.v. show...."
>
Oops!  I'll have to admit that my brothers and I were watching "My Three
Sons" with Fred McMurray and company.  I didn't get into science fiction
until adulthood.

>"Um, hmm."  Frood rummages in a mental attic for a bit.
>"I can add a few more.
>
>Do you recall when watches bragged how many jewels were present?

Yes I can.  Do you remember when a 21 jewel watch was a big deal?  The
height of quality.  Not too long ago, I had one of those watches repaired.
The guy who repaired my watch has since gone out of business.  I wonder if
I'll be able to find someone in the future?

  When
>time was expressed to the nearest 5 or 10 minutes, rather than to the
>minute, if someone asked you?

Yep.  People didn't seem so rushed or pressured, either.
>
>What about transistor radios?  A twelve transistor radio was sooooooo
>much better than a 6 transistor one.
>
>And can folks recall when a lid was not necessarily something one kept
>on something else (hmm!) but also a unit of measurement?
>
Yep.  And when $10 for a "lid" was considered expensive, too.  That was
the really "good" stuff.  $5 was a common price.  *sigh* You also didn't
have to worry about someone "dusting" the stuff either.  Now if you do
it, you either take chances or grow your own.

>And speaking of lids, coverups and uncoverings, what do you recall of
>the Watergate hearings?  Where I was, the local PBS televised them
>through the summer."
>
That they seemed to go on *forever*, and that Nixon was an sob.  I
remember Dean, Halderman, and Erlichmann testifying and the tension before
Nixon was out the door.  If he hadn't resigned, he would have been impeached.
>
An American question, modified:

Where were you when Kennedy was assassinated?

Old coot response:

  Which one?


I found myself. See? I'm right here! Until later--

Carole Parker