Slashdot Mirror
Stamps of the 80s
Noah Zoschke writes, "Last year the U.S. Postal Service held an online vote to see what people wanted to represent the 80s for a new set of stamps. It looks like a pretty good set, including video games, computers, Cabbage Patch Kids, and ET.
" The idea of licking ET doesn't quite appeal to me for some reason. I actually have a bunch of stamps from my younger days... it's definitely not a hobby I understand... but I can't understand collecting anything flat that doesn't have a casting cost.
What the postal service needs to do is create email stamps! For just $.33 you can send an email anywhere in the world, guaranteed by the legendary customer service of the postal service to be delivered within three working days.
Sorry, I'm just being sarcastic. I really can't wait, though, till the day when stamps are no longer necessary.
If you can't figure out how to mail me, don't.
For linux tips: http://www.linuxtipsblog.com
A breakdancing stamp! How fucking good is that!?
Let it die.
if they didn't include any particular computer like a mac or something, but maybe a nintendo would be rad :)
-motardo
I'm sorry but there is something horribly romantic about receiving a careful sealed letter penned in caligraphy. Just because you can have a dvd played on the computer doesn't mean live drama should be eliminated. and all this so close to valentines day. you just need some loving.
The 80s started...20 years ago....just look back at it...20 years ago..wow, long time, but so short in the cosmic scheme of things, and look, just look how times have changed, now personally i don't remember the 80s all that much ( i'm 21 in case you're wondering, i remember more of the 90s then i do the 80s ), but my god does time move fast. Sorry, i just thought this might be a good time to point out how fast time moves and do go catch the moment while you can, i think i'm going to go call my girlfriend and tell her i love her now.
/do/ remember very well that is on the stamps, is those goddamn cabbagepatch dolls, i was in love with 'em, drove my mother nuts, she actually ended up sewing one together for me ( she's actually pretty good ), but jeez, talk about the more things change the more they stay the same.....Pokemon, Cabbage Patch Dolls.....deja vu anyone?
ObOnTopic Comment: The one thing I
*out*
There is a great deal of easy money to be made in collecting. Eventually I think it more likely that people will simply have machine generated postage at either the post office or from personal machines (Pittney Bowes has machines for small Businesses already).
This will make all those cheasy ET stamps worth some cold hard cash. Unlike pokemon cards these have a future.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
c'mon CmdrTaco, licking stamps is pretty disgusting in general.
Paper money is flat, and the casting cost is the same as stamps. Since paper money has no value, I'll take it off people hands, no charge.
To go on a stamp:
:)
- The Cure (i like the Cure, im not bashing em)
- Micheal Jackson on fire
- EmptyV (MTV) logo
- a DOS prompt hehe
- Madonna
- Regan getting shot
- Oliver North
- Pete Rose (dada dada dada dada BET MAN!)
- Iatola Khumani (sp?)
- Geroge Micheal and/or Boy George (Boy George Micheal?)
- Cindi Lauper
- Sam Kinnison
- Molly Ringwald and/or the cast of The Breakfast Club
- an AIDS ribbon logo (i'm serious this time)
can anyone think of any others?
"There is no spoon"-Neo, The Matrix
"SPOOOOOOOOON!"-The Tick, The Tick
Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm 24, the 80s are just like yesterday, and I find it real hard to believe that all that time's already gone by.
I do remember the 80s, or at least parts of them, but it seems like a distant memory now. I think I'm starting to feel old. :(
Yeah, when I was a boy, we didn't have an Internet, we just had PCs we used in the library... no network... 5 1/4 inch drives, little black and white macs. No windows, all dos based. Wow, and I remember that.
Scary.
Whitney Houston. The Bangles. Martika. Sigh.
If you can't figure out how to mail me, don't.
For linux tips: http://www.linuxtipsblog.com
Any others?
--
Quite an array of lovely 80's stamps. After examining each for many hours, comparing memories from one to memories from the other, analysing the benfits of each's color layout, I'm going to have to go with #33.
#33 brings out the best of the 80's while also reflecting many (more than the others, anyway) good things about the world in general. Be it communist, capatalist, or nihilist, the #33 stamp supports them all. Yes, my final vote is for #33. I think you will all agree.
Don't call me "Generation X,"
call me a child of the eighties
by Bryant Adkins
published in The Reflector
January 20, 1995
(here too)
I am a child of the eighties. That is what I prefer to be called. The nineties can do without me. Grunge isn't here to stay, fashion is fickle and "Generation X" is a myth created by some over-40 writer trying to figure out why people wear flannel in the summer. When I got home from school, I played with my Atari 2600. I spent hours playing Pitfall or Combat or Breakout or Dodge'em Cars or Frogger. I never did beat Asteroids. Then I watched "Scooby Doo." Daphne was a Goddess, and I thought Shaggy was smoking something synthetic in the back of their psychedelic van. I hated Scrappy.
I would sleep over at friends' houses on the weekends. We played army with G.I. Joe figures, and I set up galactic wars between Autobots and Decepticons. We stayed up half the night throwing marshmallows and Velveeta at one another. We never beat the Rubik's Cube.
I got up on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to watch bad Hanna-Barbera cartoons like "The Snorks," "Jabberjaw," "Captain Caveman," and "Space Ghost." In between I would watch "School House Rock." ("Conjunction junction, what's your function?")
On weeknights Daisy Duke was my future wife. I was going to own the General Lee and shoot dynamite arrows out the back. Why did they weld the doors shut? At the movies the Nerds got Revenge on the Alpha Betas by teaming up with the Omega Mus. I watched Indiana Jones save the Ark of the Covenant, and wondered what Yoda meant when he said, "No, there is another."
Ronald Reagan was cool. Gorbachev was the guy who built a McDonalds in Moscow. My family took summer vacations to the Gulf of Mexico and collected "Muppet Movie" glasses along the way. (We had the whole set.) My brother and I fought in the back seat. At the hotel we found creative uses for Connect Four pieces like throwing them in that big air conditioning unit.
I listened to John COUGAR Mellencamp sing about Little Pink Houses for Jack and Diane. I was bewildered by Boy George and the colors of his dreams, red, gold, and green. MTV played videos. Nickelodeon played "You Can't Do That on Television" and "Dangermouse." Cor! HBO showed Mike Tyson pummel everybody except Robin Givens, the bad actress from "Head of the Class" who took all Mike's cashflow.
I drank Dr. Pepper. "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper, wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?" Shasta was for losers. TAB was a laboratory accident. Capri Sun was a social statement. Orange juice wasn't just for breakfast anymore, and bacon had to move over for something meatier.
My mom put a thousand Little Debbie Snack Cakes in my Charlie Brown lunch box, and filled my Snoopy Thermos with grape Kool-Aid. I would never eat the snack cakes, though. Did anyone? I got two thousand cheese and cracker snack packs, and I ate those.
I went to school and had recess. I went to the same classes everyday. Some weird guy from the eighth grade always won the science fair with the working hydro-electric plant that leaked on my project about music and plants. They just loved Beethoven.
Field day was bigger than Christmas, but it always managed to rain just enough to make everybody miserable before they fell over in the three-legged race. Where did all those panty hose come from? "Deck the Halls with Gasoline, fa la la la la la la la la," was just a song. Burping was cool. Rubber band fights were cooler. A substitute teacher was a baby sitter/marked woman. Nobody deserved that.
I went to Cub Scouts. I got my arrow-of-light, but never managed to win the Pinewood Derby. I got almost every skill award but don't remember ever doing anything.
The world stopped when the Challenger exploded.
Did a teacher come in and tell your class?
Half of your friends' parents got divorced.
People did not just say no to drugs.
AIDS started, but you knew more people who had a grandparent die from cancer.
Somebody in your school died before they graduated.
When you put all this stuff together, you have my childhood. If this stuff sounds familiar, then I bet you are one, too.
We are children of the eighties. That is what I prefer "they" call it.
they were so much cooler than cabbage patch.
This sig intentionally left blank.
Ok, I've seen a couple shows, but Cats was not one of them. (I'm allergic)
Is it really that good? It seems a little silly next to the Berlin Wall, but then I guess under that measure most of the other stamps do, too.
.sig last updated Jan. 14, 2000
Thank you, Rob, for not linking to the online-vote page from slashdot before the vote was over.
--
The shareholder is always right.
And it's "tangent". But it's cool.
:) ah well, memories.....those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end, yes those were the days...
:)
GODDAMINT, that's what i typed the first time
On to the quiet darkness of slumber, to dream of yesteryear and all the promises it held.
Night!
Yes! Glad to see the good old IBM Personal Computer (PC). Not the AT, not the XT, but the original PC. I got one in Dec. 1997 which is pretty sad when you think about it. I was crusing along on an 8-bit bus and 4.77 MHz CPU. CGA (2-bit color) graphics, but I bet the text mode would work just fine in Linux (too bad the shape of the full-length board prevents me from putting it into a 16-bit ISA slot). The one I had, had a (c) 1984 BIOS (probably an upgrade) with a Seagate 20 MB (that's MB, not GB) drive. 6-pack plus card (to bring me up to the max: 640 KB RAM, game, serial, parallel, a clock that kept the time when you turned off the computer (heh)), 8087 Math Coprocessor (i.e. floating point unit on an external chip). Clicky-clacky 83-key keyboard. Cassette port. BASIC in ROM. Full height (think two CDROM drives on top of each other) 360 KB 5.25" floppy drive. I replaced the Intel 8088 with a clone that had fewer clock cylces for some instructions. I used that baby until I got my spanking new 486/66 in 1993. All you Apple II and Amiga fans harassed me all the while, but where is your Apple II and Amiga now? Ha! Now everyone is using glorified x86's and MS-DOS with add-ons. (Just funnin'. No flames please.)
t ml
The Personal Computer (in general) was Time's Man of the Year (called Machine of the Year since it isn't a man) for 1982. http://www.pathfinder.com/time/special/moy/1982.h
There's some really interesting stuff in that article.
i always thought it was pretty neat that it cost the same whether put a bland stamp on an envelope and mailed it next door or you put a really cool stamp on and mailed it to california.
Definitely a big part of the 80's that shouldn't be left out. It would look really pretty on a stamp.
One learned to program efficiently. You did not need 40mb of ram for a word processor. I ran Perfect Writer 64k of ram.
I was raised on a PDP-11/34 with 128k of ram for 20 users.
Fight Spammers!
The microcomputer lab at my school had one (circa 1984). Seemed pretty pointless and unfriendly at the time, since almost no one knew how to use it.
How about a razor blade, a mirror, and a couple of lines of cocaine?
Stamps have gone downhill since the 1920s. The two-color black & red US stamps from that period are simply stunning.
Ok, I am a bit biased, since I didnt really see the what the big deal over cabbage patch kidsor ET was at the time, but I was a big transformers fan then (and still am), but seriously, if they're commemorating 80s pop culture, transformers are conspicuously absent. For one thing, unlike breakdancing or cabbage patch kids, they're still somewhat popular today. And, IMHO, transformers were one of the only worthwhile things to come out of that decade, culturally. so THERE.
wisconsin does not exist.
in the Aerosmith video for Crazy. Kneesocks are the greatest, plus that was a cool video. Must have a stamp with it.
- - - -
... with all the antiaircraft fire that we would watch on CNN every day. Couldn't have a set of 90's stamps without that.
-- My comment is above.
What the post office needs to do is release an old atari collection. Ya know, PacMan, DigDug, Centipede, Space Invaders, Pitfall, etc.
Then to encourage excessive use of stamps they should make them fit like puzzles, so you can combine two stamps to make a bigger picture. They could also maybe make an extra buck that they are complaining about losing to email.
Just my 2c
Citrix
Leknor
http://Leknor.com
"So many idiots, so few comets"
The original 'computer for the rest of us'. Codename: Popcorn. The unbelievable hype from IBM for the PCjr was the start of Modern Techno Marketing as we know and love it today. And the way the Mass Media bought into the IBM PR Machine was even more unbelievable. Did anyone actually ever BUY a PCjr ???
tap to laugh at slashdot for being full of magic geeks.. :-)
The few that did had their fingers curl up into little balls from that crappy keyboard. (Apple //c forever!)
slashdot has been 0wn3d by VA Linux. fix ur security.
Back in college in the mid-1980s, I knew a guy (not me, some other guy, totally unrelated to myself) who used his Apple II+ and ImageWriter printer (which was quite the 'l33t printer back in those days) to embellish ordinary envelopes with the magical sigil:
BUSINESS REPLY MAIL
NO POSTAGE NECESSARY
IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
... exactly as used by junk mailers everywhere.
Being that this was undoubtedly a violation of Federal law punishable by 95 years in jail and a $6,000,000 fine, this dude (whose name I am frankly having trouble even remembering) only had the cojones to try his E-Stamp(tm) process on a single letter.
But it worked.
Now, if only this guy had thought to apply for a patent on electronically-printed postage, he would probably be a very wealthy man today.
But that wouldn't do me any good personally, of course, because I'm pretty sure I couldn't even come up with the bright young fellow's name. Not even if asked impolitely by men equipped with sunglasses and guns.
-- jm
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
I still have it somewhere.
cya, Andrew...
This is my sig, exciting huh!
I was 8 in 1980, so I spent my formative years wading through some awful clothes and music that you just can't dance to, at all.
It's funny that this topic came up, since just yesterday I was proclaimed "Out of touch" by an 18 year-old girl (her reason was that I din't "get" the Backstreet Boys). Anyway, that event, and this reminded me of the following list I was sent about a year ago. If you're over 25, I think you'll appreciate it.
***
The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born
in 1980.
They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he
had ever been shot. And Jimmy Carter is that guy who builds houses.
They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
There has only been one Pope.
They can only really remember one president. Who's Bush?
They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart, and do not remember the
Cold War.
They have never feared a nuclear war.
"The Day After" is a pill to them, not a movie.
CCCP is just a bunch of letters.
No one boycotted the Olympics.
T-shirts have always had designer names and sports logos on them.
They have only known one Germany.
They are too young to remember the Space shuttle blowing up, and
Tienamin Square means nothing to them.
They do not know who Qadafi is.
Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
They never had a Polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is.
Bottles have not only always been twist off, but have always been plastic.
They have no idea what a pull top can looks like.
Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums.
The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to
them. They have never owned a record player.
They have likely never played Pac Man, and have never heard of Pong.
"Star Wars" looks very fake and the special effects are pathetic.
There have always been Red M&Ms, and Blue ones are not new.
And what do you mean there used to be beige ones?
They may have heard of an 8-track, but chances are they probably
have never actually seen or heard one. The Compact Disc was
introduced when they were 1 year old.
As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 32 cents.
Zip codes have always had a dash in them.
They have always had an answering machine and a computer.
Beepers are toys, not advanced technology.
Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they
seen a black and white TV.
They have always had cable.
There have always been VCR's, but they have no idea what Beta is.
They cannot fathom not having a remote control.
They were born the year that Walkmen were introduced by Sony.
Roller-skating has always meant inline for them.
They have never heard of King Cola, Burger Chef, The Globe
Democrat, Braniff, PanAM or Ozark Airlines.
The Tonight Show has always been with Jay Leno.
They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
They are nostalgic for corduroy jeans, wide legs, platform shoes, Candie's,
Pumas and rayon shirts - without experiencing the original versions.
Popcorn has always been cooked in a microwave.
And what's a hot plate?
They have never seen and remember a game that included the St.
Louis (Football) Cardinals, the Baltimore Colts, the Minnesota North
Stars, the Kansas City Kings, the New Orleans Jazz, The Minnesota Lakers,
The Atlanta Flames, or the Denver Rockies (NHL Hockey, that is)
They do not consider the Colorado Rockies, the Florida Marlins, The
Florida Panthers, The Ottawa Senators, the San Jose Sharks, or the
Tampa Bay Lightning "expansion teams".
They have never seen Larry Bird play, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a
football player.
They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
The Vietnam War is as much ancient history to them as WWI, WWII or
even the Civil War.
They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.
They never heard the terms "Where's the beef?", "I'd walk a mile
for a Camel," or "de plane, de plane!".
They do not care who shot J. R. and have no idea who J. R. is.
The Cosby Show, The Facts of Life, Silver Spoon, The Love Boat,
Miami Vice, WKRP in Cincinnati, and Taxi are shows they have likely
never seen.
The Titanic was found? I thought we always knew where it was.
They cannot remember the Cardinals ever winning a World Series, or
even being in one.
Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not groups.
McDonald's came in Styrofoam containers?
Do you feel old now? Remember, the people who don't know these
things will be in college this year...and they can vote!
I've looked at it in 640 x 480, 800 x600, and 1024 x 768. Can anyone tell me what that thing with the human right arm and the rectangular blue "handle" in front of the wall is?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
My mother was on a school board that bought a bunch of PCjr machines, and they hated them. She was pretty pissed at IBM afterwards.
What would the 80's be without regan and the arms race? hmm or maybe a pic of the challenger explosion.
Chernobyl nuclear power plant with a greenish glow around it.
...you lick his backside! I agree -- not an appealing idea. (Now just wait for someone to suggest licking Natalie Portman's backside...but I digress :-)
--
Infuriate left and right
..have they included the Cosby Show, and not classics like McGuyver, the A-Team, Airwolf or Knight Rider?
;)
All right, disco for the 70s, PCs in the 80s, I can see that.. Perfectly fine.. But..
Where, where, where is Zork, the defining Infocom adventure of the 80s? (Yeah, I know, developed in the 60s and 70s, but wide release was in the 80s...) Nowhere in the 60s is ARPANET. Nowhere in the 70s OR 80s is American Bell's Dataphone (the old name for these newfangled "modem" devices). Quake and DOOM have been carelessly left out of the 90s.
Now, if Al Gore or Steve Case are on the "Internet/WWW" Stamp, heads are gonna roll...
Where is the Ronald Reagan stamp?
Of all the influental men during the 80's I would like to point out that Ronald Reagan did the most for his country and humanity alike.
He is the greatest president we have had since the end of world war II. I would even rank him in the top 5 presidents of our country. A man of impecable morals and pure intentions.
I say we honor him and his memory by placing a stamp of his presidency in this collection. He was definately one of the biggest "movers and shakers" during this decade.
I would also like to see more stamps with a serious note of influental events or people who influenced the world as a whole in a better way during the 80's.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
www.haidacarver.com
Didn't i read something about stamps of the 80's a couple of years ago? Yeah I did... The only design that I can remember that was approved at the time was Mario. Mario was approved for the 80's stamps or video game stamps... it's one of the two
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
Ok, fine then who else we going to make a stamp of?
Bill Clinton holding a cigar? Give me a break.
Admittedly Reagan had his faults and sure maybe he wasn't Albert Einstein but what makes a great man is what he stands for what he trys to portray. I say that Reagan's morals do make him a "great man". Because in the end that is really all we have to evaluate a person on.
We have no control over our IQ, or are financial situation in life, among other things. But we most certainly have our own beliefs and free agency... and Reagan chose these well. What he exemplified was great and he brought a sense of pride and ownership back to the United States that was lacking after the Vietnam era.
I could go on and on but I think you get my point.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
www.haidacarver.com
This is probably the most insightful article I have ever read on Slashdot.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
www.haidacarver.com
I'm all for a Traci Lords stamp... Is there a statute of limitations on owning her movies?
. at my signal -- unleash hell .
Garbage pale kids ?
The scene from the transformers movie where Megatron knocks Optimus down and they play that epic rock van halen styled power chords. Bloddy brilliant touch.
<p>"You've got the touch"
<p>(guitar riff)
<p>"You've got the power"
-Docvert converts MSWord to OpenDocument, clean HTML
-Mr. T
Yeah. Can't beat the A-Team.
Wonder why they were always locked in garages or other places with lots of tools though.
And why did no-one ever get shot?
-Mr. T
Shouldn't that be Mr OT?
I just heard today on the radio that in a few weeks or months, you can walk into any Swiss post office with your floppy or Zip disk in hand and tell them to take all the letters you have on there, print them, package them, stamp them and mail them out for you. The cost should be significantly less than what it would take to pay your own people to do it.
I know this is quite off-topic, but I like this kind of getting lost customers back better than the "if all our ex-customers are now using e-mail, we'll just tax that" approach. After all, one significant advantage of e-mail (next to speed) is the time you save in preparing messages for delivery. With this new printing/packaging service, writing 200 letters is just as easy as writing 200 e-mails - it's just a matter of saving a digital document, and taking the disk to your local post office is akin to pressing the send button in your mail app.
I really hope the Swiss Post succeeds with this strategy. It might even help start-ups who would usually need at least eight hours to mail out invoices to 3000 customers for example..
They also offer UPAQ, a system that 128-bit encrypts sensible documents and provides authentification of both parties involved - in e-mail. You can even track your message and see exactly when the recipient opens and decrypts the file.
And you can even get stamps online - a huge collection. They really treat the electronic world well for a government-owned company. You can check out their English website here.
I'd have no objection to licking her!
What seems to have stopped completely, besides politics, is popular music. If you think how it evolved in about ten years, from Buddy Holly to Pink Floyd, for instance, one feels the last new band was Alice Cooper. The first time I became aware that the Rolling Stones existed was when Satisfaction came out in 1965. They are still playing it at their shows.
In 1965, Glenn Miller had been a hit for less time than the Rolling Stones have been now. Why is it that no new music styles are invented anymore?
I remember a friend of mine going out and collecting a few of these when the new cans were introduced, he said just to remember. Back then I thought he was nuts. Now I wish I had some.
I don't know why, but pull top cans are so way much cooler. The lid thing you pull of has a thousand useful appliances, I want my pull top can back. Damn them jerks who littered the lids all over the place. You just put the lid inside the can when you're done and throw it both away, no sharp lids lying around..
Enough incoherence for today :P
They have a specific movie character, a specific play, a specific computer, I can only assume that the video game is real.
Looks a little like "Defender" or one of its clones.
Anyone have an idea????
Robotech blew my mind when I was a kid in the 80's. People actually died and the earth got melted by 4 million alien warships! There as yet to be another cartoon (or anime like that for me) -"CAPTAIN!" .."Whats wrong?" "NO SMOKING ON THE BRIDGE".."I was merley holding it."
Vaughn "Its always darkest before it goes pitch black."
We had a Texas Instruments Home Computer. If I remember right, the thing hooked up to a TV, and was entirely cartridge based (no disk drive whatsoever). I can barely remember it, but it did have a tape drive (of sorts). Something where we hooked up a tape recorder (standard run-of-the-mill) and somehow it read a program off of it, some simple jousting game (but not Joust(TM)). It died of a critical error when three of the keys on the keyboard weren't being recognized as keys anymore.
Later on, my parents bought a couple Apple ][s. They were neet, but I hated the disk drive noise when you didn't have a disk inserted when it tried to read, or when it was having trouble reading the data.
With the risk of making this topic just a grabbag of 80's crap, The one thing I wish I could remember out of the 80's better was The Great Space Coaster. I loved that show, but I can't remember a lot of it. Wish I could find it on tape....
-----
"Defenestration" is to throw out of a window; what's a word for throwing 'Windows' out of something?
Pre-AIDS, post-punk..ahh, youth.
What? You havent had your GenX friends email that list to you? It's been going around for at -least- 2 years. But hey, at least its relevant.
The Mac.
Neon Pink and Green clothing.
Big Hair.
Miami Vice.
The Countach.
TRON.
Oliver North.
The Macenzie Bros.
Buckwheat T-shirts.
The Ayatollah.
IRON F*CKING MAIDEN.
Top Gun.
The Mockingboard.
Hi-top Nikes (I OWNED a pair of black and silver Vandals!)
And "foreign legion" caps.
Blech. Signatures.
The Compact Disc.
Ferris Beuler (Anyone?).
Purple Rain.
WHAM!
Velcro Shoelaces.
Stonewashed Denim.
Rambo.
Feeeeeed...theeee.wooooorrrrllldd. (sing it with me.)
Nibble Magazine.
Duck Hunt.
Front Wheel Drive.
Skittles.
Back to the Future.
Boomboxes bigger than my car.
Grenada.
Wine Coolers.
"You don't know. You weren't THERE, man!"
Blech. Signatures.
For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, the PMRC (Parent's Music Resource Center) was an attempt at censorship of the music industry by bored Washington housewives (Tipper Gore was one of the leaders) which was sparked off by Tipper hearing her child listening to Prince and the Revolution's song Darling Nikki (song about a woman masturbating for these purposes).
--
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
parachute pants
Izod shirts (remember? with the little fucking alligator?)
deck shoes
"London Fog" jackets with the sleeves pushed up
your first walkman
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
I'm a big fan of the IBM-XT computer. The XT started production the year I was born, and it has that antique computer charm. The case is really nifty too, and that 8088 just zooms while playing games like zork and such. If anyone asks, I'll post a link or two to some sites devoted to the XT and other vintage computers. (386es are getting pretty old, right?) I may be getting a couple more and I'll have Linux crankin on em, or mabye get some good dos games. (DRDOS rules!)
Don't call my crazy, that's what they called me back in the home!
What about:
* Quasi-metal pretty boy bands?
* The return of the miniskirt (esp. in denim)?
* Intellivision commercials starring George Plimpton?
* Weird Al?
* Tight designer jeans?
* The death of UNIX (it was generally assumed to be dying out by the end of the 80s).
Overall, it's a strange assortment. It's depressing in a way that the 1980s will be remembered for pop culture commercial fads more than anything else. I mean, really, those people who paid $100+ for Cabbage Patch Kids look back on it fondly? I'd be embarrassed.
Hip Hop Culture
This one is just too classic not to point out.
Recalling the days of breakdancing on pieces
of cardboard on the sidewalk--that's just a
hallmark of American history that we can't afford
to miss.
Bravo, USPS!
What I should have said was nothing.
---------
Don't call my crazy, that's what they called me back in the home!
laser tag. doesn't anyone remember the countless hours running through your house shooting at your friends? i do. i still have all of my old laser tag equipment. it may have died for a while, but it's back in home and remote versions [q-zar?]
-
People think that I hear little voices inside my head telling me what to do. That's ridiculous. It's more like a movie, with these little hamster guys that hold up charts and maps and other visual aids. You know, whatever they have to use.
how about a stamp showing a young stock broker doing a line of coke off a strippers ass? that would be a fitting representation of the 80's from what i've heard (i was a freshman in high school when the 80's expired).
seriously, how about a fishbone stamp? then you can party at ground zero for $.33.
and btw - fishbone has a new record coming out next month and if you liked their 80's stuff you will really like it. trust me.
raz
------------
DJ Raz
raz@wfnk.com
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DJ Raz
raz@wfnk.com
Naw, they had the 32XE, 64XE, and the 130XE, i had the old 32XE and recently found an 130XE at salvation army, i love it :)
I've never heard of a 32XE, and have been using Ataris since the early 80s (though this was in the US -- I think that Atari may have released one or two different models in Europe. Where did you get yours?). The progression of 8-bit Ataris (roughly chronologically) that I'm aware of is: 400, 800, 1200XL, 600XL, 800XL, 130XE, 65XE... The XEs are pretty much the same as the XLs only they were pale grey instead of black & silver. The 130XE had 128K RAM, and the 65XE had 64K (so it was functionally identical to an 800XL).
At one point I had an 800XL with 256K RAM - that was ELITE at the time (circa 1984), even though you could hardly do anything with the extra memory, since the 6502 processor could only address 48K of main memory and the rest had to be bank-switched in 16K blocks... So basically it was just like any other Atari except you had like a dozen virtual RAMdisk devices that were only 16K each... After that machine died we bought a 65XE which is still at my parent's house... My dad still plays "MULE" and "River Raid" all the time on it.
but I can't understand collecting anything flat that doesn't have a casting cost.
So Taco plays Magic? How excellent, I imagine with his millions he's managed to collect all the nice jewelry and everything. Go Taco! >:)
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Of course they left out THE most important cultural contribution of the 80's. The one statement the future historians will look back upon and realize we lived in a golden age. The A-Team.
When punk rock is outlawed, only outlaws will have punk rock.
I wore velcro shoes LONG after they went out of fashion. Consequently, after I wore velcro for so long, I had to re-familiarize myself with shoelaces. Gawsh i loved the early 1980s. Back when there actually WERE video games and video arcades.
Each year the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin
puts together a list to try to give the faculty a sense of the mindset
of that year's incoming freshmen. Here is this year's list:
The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were
born in 1982.
They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan Era and probably did not
know he had ever been shot.
They were pre pubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
There has been only one Pope.
They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember
the Cold War.
They have never feared a nuclear war.
(oh man, I had such a bad case of nuclear anxiety as a kid!)
They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.
Tianamen Square means nothing to them.
Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.
Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums.
The expression you sound like a broken record means nothing to them.
They have never owned a record player.
(I have two!)
They have likely never played Pac Man and have never heard of Pong.
They may have never heard of an 8 track.
The Compact Disc was introduced when they were 1 year old.
They have always had an answering machine.
Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they
seen a black-and-white TV.
They have always had cable.
(yikes, fond memories of our giant RCA!)
There has always been VCRs, but they have no idea what BETA is.
They cannot fathom not having a remote control.
They were born the year that Walkman was introduced by Sony.
Roller-skating has always meant inline for them.
Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.
They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
They have never seen Larry Bird play.
They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WW1, WW2 and the Civil War.
They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.
They never heard: "Where's the beef?", "I'd walked a mile for a Camel", or
"de plane, de plane".
They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.
The Titanic was found? They thought we always knew where it was.
Michael Jackson has always been white.
Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not groups.
McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.
There has always been MTV.
They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.
Pass this on to the other old fogies.
Don't call me "Generation X," call me a child of the eighties
by Bryant Adkins
published in The Reflector
January 20, 1995
-----------------------------------------------
I am a child of the eighties. That is what I prefer to be called. The nineties can do without me. Grunge isn't here to stay, fashion is fickle and "Generation X" is a myth created by some over-40 writer trying to figure out why people wear flannel in the summer.
When I got home from school, I played with my Atari 2600. I spent hours playing Pitfall or Combat or Breakout or Dodge'em Cars or Frogger.
I never did beat Asteroids. Then I watched "Scooby Doo." Daphne was a Goddess, and I thought Shaggy was smoking something synthetic in the back of their psychedelic van. I hated Scrappy.
I would sleep over at friends' houses on the weekends. We played army with G.I. Joe figures, and I set up galactic wars between Autobots and Decepticons. We stayed up half the night throwing marshmallows and Velveeta at one another. We never beat the Rubik's Cube.
I got up on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to watch bad Hanna-Barbera cartoons like "The Snorks," "Jabberjaw," "Captain Caveman," and "Space Ghost." In between I would watch "School House Rock."
"Conjunction junction, what's your function?"
On weeknights Daisy Duke was my future wife. I was going to own the General Lee and shoot dynamite arrows out the back. Why did they weld the doors shut?
At the movies the Nerds got Revenge on the Alpha Betas by teaming up with the Omega Mus. I watched Indiana Jones save the Ark of the Covenant, and wondered what Yoda meant when he said, "No, there is another."
Ronald Reagan was cool. Gorbachev was the guy who built a McDonalds in Moscow. My family took summer vacations to the Gulf of Mexico and collected "Muppet Movie" glasses along the way. (We had the whole set.)
My brother and I fought in the back seat. At the hotel we found creative uses for Connect Four pieces like throwing them in that big air conditioning unit.
I listened to John COUGAR Mellencamp sing about Little Pink Houses for Jack and Diane. I was bewildered by Boy George and the colors of his dreams, red, gold, and green.
MTV played videos. Nickelodeon played "You Can't Do That on Television" and Dangermouse."
HBO showed Mike Tyson pummel everybody except Robin Givens, the bad actress from "Head of the Class" who took all Mike's cashflow.
I drank Dr. Pepper. "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper, wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?" Shasta was for losers. TAB was a laboratory accident, Capri Sun was a social statement. Orange juice wasn't just for breakfast anymore, and bacon had to move over for something meatier.
My mom put a thousand Little Debbie Snack Cakes in my Charlie Brown lunch box, and filled my Snoopy Thermos with grape Kool-Aid. I would never eat the snack cakes, though. Did anyone? I got two thousand cheese and cracker snack packs, and I ate those.
I went to school and had recess. I went to the same classes everyday. Some weird guy from the eighth grade always won the science fair with the working hydro-electric plant that leaked on my project about music and plants. They just loved Beethoven.
Field day was bigger than Christmas, but it always managed to rain just enough to make everybody miserable before they fell over in the three-legged race. Where did all those panty hose come from?
Deck the Halls with Gasoline, fa la la la la la la la la," was just a song. Burping was cool. Rubber band fights were cooler. A substitute teacher was a baby sitter/marked woman. Nobody deserved that.
I went to Cub Scouts. I got my arrow-of-light, but never managed to win the Pinewood Derby. I got almost every skill award but don't remember ever doing anything.
The world stopped when the Challenger exploded.It is to us what Kennedy's assasination was to the children of the 60's.
Did a teacher come in and tell your class? Half of your friends' parents got divorced. People did not just say no to drugs.
AIDS started, but you knew more people who had a grandparent die from cancer.
Somebody in your school died before they graduated.
When you put all this stuff together, you have my childhood. If this stuff sounds familiar, then I bet you are one, too. We are children of the eighties. That is what I prefer "they" call it.
Do you ever feel like there are people watching you? You're not alone.
How is it that the government can make stamps
featuring ET and Cabbage Patch Kids without
having to pay royalties to the likes of Spielberg?
You can bet if I made a set of ET trading cards
I'd get a summons to court within a week...
(And no crap about people just use them to send
letters either, loads of the "commemorative"
stamps are purchased by collectors!)
Gob bless this wonderful President.
Now, all the liberals will no doubt start their flaming with such brilliant insight as "Ron Sux" and "Ron naked and petrified". Flame away while you continue to benefit from Reaganomics.
hmm... Lands don't have casting costs.......... come to think of it neither does fountain of youth or zuran orb. if you have any and don't want em send em my way... 8)
Sponge!
I was gonna suggest a You Can't Do That on Television stamp, with green paste on the back and that dude's head on the front, etc., until I realised that it was a Canadian show. Come to think of it, so did Bryan Adams, another icon of the eighties, IMO. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)
On a side note, I used to publish an online magazine with some friends, called Verbosity. We published an eighties flashback issue that featured interviews with key 80s elements, Rodney Dangerfield and Adam Curry. If this stamp discussion doesn't whet your appetite for Reaganomics, the Cold War and parachute pants, read the Verbosity 80s issue.
I recently got the 80's stamp set when I asked for some stamps to mail letters. They must have run out of the regular stamps?? Anyway, I thought they were pretty dumb. ET, the Cosby Show aren't that bad I suppose, but Cabbage Patch Kids? They are saying NASA's Challenger Shuttle Program had about the same impact as a stupid flame resistant doll. When was the jump rope invented? For argument sake, say it was invented in the 1590s. I mean if they did a "20 stamps of the 1590s" would they list the jump rope along with Columbus "discovering" the Americas?
not just hooves, but almost anything they can squeeze a fucking drop of collagen out of.
There's a phrase that was coined at the end of the 1800's: "soi-de-cent." It's French for "end of the century," and it was used to refer to the mood of the times. Very backwards-looking, some gloom and feeling that everything important had already been done. It's just natural for people at the end of a century to look back over where they've (collectively, at least) been.
Things should be clearing up on this front fairly soon, if history repeats itself. I for one am more than ready to start looking forwards.
Jon
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Flat, no casting cost, and can block a Shivan Dragon...once. ;) I once collected them exclusively...I had 13 of 'em...wanted to make an illegal Ornithopter/Unstable Mutation Deck...oh yeah, those were the days...
Exploding candy and see through cola! I still have a full, unopened, 2L bottle of Crystal Pepsi that I'll probably auctions off on ebay someday. Do they still make pop rocks anywhere anymore?
The USPS has a policy against putting living persons on stamps. This is to ensure that they don't get caught up in that whole problem they have with Congress naming pork-barrel dams and expressways after the sitting congressmen who put them in their districts. For example, if you look at a map of Pennsylvania, the road to nowhere known as Interstate 99 is officially named after the sitting member of Congress from the region, Bud Shuster. Many of his constituents tried to stop it. And contrary to popular belief, Reagan is not dead and Elvis is.
Who gives a toss about the Cabbage Patch kids? They sucked. The Garbage Pail kids were much better.
axolotl
How can you discuss the 80s, and not mention an event more controversial than anything? "New" Coke. http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/newcoke.htm
I mean if they did a "20 stamps of the 1590s" would they list the jump rope along with Columbus "discovering" the Americas?
;)
I should hope not. Columbus "discovered" the Americas in 1492. Remember that whole 500-year anniversary thing way back in the 1990's?
For more information, click here.
That was awfully fast... they're already planning stamps of the '90s over at this page. They have a stamp about sport utility vehicles. which I find appalling. Are we going to remember the '90s as a bunch of soccer moms plowing through good-natured citizens' passenger cars?
For more information, click here.
Three Words: Members Only Jackets
Sigh...
"Don't try to confuse the issue with half truths and gorilla dust."
Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman)
I would like a C64 stamp :)
Gimme the Atari "fuji" logo, or stamps with Pac Man/Congo Bongo/Galaga....
Isn't that what the 80's were all about?
Heck, I still *collect* ATari 2600 carts, and XL/XE disk images. Those're some of the BEST games ever 'made for Linux'...
The weird thing about the reminiscing here is that it's all based around junk that advertisers marketed at people. "Oh, man, do you remember when McDonalds didn't serve breakfast or have Chicken McNuggets?" "Do you remember when The Simpsons was between-sketch filler on The Tracy Ullman Show?" "How about those clothes, like Flashdance sweatshirts and acid-wash denim and nylon running shorts?"
In a way, the quick changes in fads make time seem like it's just flying by much faster than it is (nostalgic relativity?). If you're in college, then just three years after you graduate you can go back to campus and see that everyone is wearing something different that you never would have expected. And it probably will be something that seems really dumb, like comically oversized pants or Herman Munster shoes (both of which are now soooo 90s).
Ronald Reagan was a visionary. His understanding of economic principles puts most economic policy-makers to shame. The claims of him being a puppet are unfounded. Ronald Reagan was also a great actor. I long for the days when Reagan was president and the greatness of our country was assured. Why do people berate him so? I say no to drugs so that I can say yes to Ronald. I wish he would share his jelly beans with me. I wish he were still our president. The beauty of his wife insured his fidelity and her strength of character helped to lead our nation in its fight against the evils of drug use and deciding for oneself. Oh for those heady days of the Reagan years. To be young again. Alas, I must say adieu to that fair man who so transformed our nation, bridging the racial divide, and healing our latent animosities. If only he had convinced homosexuals to stay in their closets and lesbians to keep their tongues in their mouths. If only he had finished his good works in Iran and set our nation on an even better course for world domination. Oh bless this holy country of ours. Thank you God for giving us Reagan. He is sorely missed.
I think that's what the kids are playing. Good Stamp.
Cosby Show, ET, Cats, and 49'ers stamps are a waste of adhesive. Then again, the entire A&E section can go away.
I'd rather take Titanic than a goddamn SUV stamp. Now they're a waste of paper as well as a waste of gas.