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Father of the Frisbee Dies At 90
theodp writes "Walter Fredrick Morrison, whose post-World War II invention of a 'flying' plastic disc became the American recreational icon known as the Frisbee, has died at age 90 of age-related causes (great obit pic). Wham-O Inc. has sold more than 200 million Frisbees since Morrison sold the company the rights to what he called the Pluto Platter in 1957. The roots of today's aerodynamic Frisbees go back to 1937, when Morrison and his future wife tossed a large popcorn can lid back and forth for fun during a Thanksgiving party."
His soul has gone up on the roof and gotten stuck there.
Farewell Sir, My dog thanks you.
I seem to recall watching a documentary that showed the frisbee being invented some time back in 1885 or 1886.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Didn't that teach us frisbees were pie pans?
Seriously, has Slashdot jumped the shark? This definitely would not have been posted here ten years ago.
I mean... it's kinda appropriate. isn't?
Dear
What's worse, this was on reddit and Digg days ago. I don't mean yesterday, either. It was on there three or four days ago, right after he died.
My father still has one of the original Pluto Platters (the first commercially produced flying disc) that he made. Sad to see him go, the thing still flies great today (though we dont throw it much as the plastic has grown brittle).
Yeah but ten years ago we were younger and not as sentimental.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
That's because ten years ago, there was no Live FreeBSD distro that would use a name coined by a man in a nerdy spacesuit.
Ezekiel 23:20
...did he'll ever come back?
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Of course not. Ten years ago he was still alive.
ACs these days...
They made a movie about him http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110074/
Rankmaniac 2010
College students every mourn.
That's why my frisbee stopped working.
He didn't invent anything, he's just the one who had the idea of selling "popcorn can lids" as "flying disks" and convinced a toy company it was a good idea?
Aerobies are waaay more fun. To take mine away, you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead, ...oh wait.
http://www.aerobie.com/Products/Sprint.htm
"The farthest object thrown by man"
What about the mom? Giving birth to a frisbee must have hurt.
I invention of a 'flying' plastic disc
Why the quotes? A disc generates real aerodynamic lift; anyone who plays Ultimate can tell you that. Throw right-handed and drop the outside edge, and it will curve to the right. Raise it and aim a bit out and up, and you can throw an "outside in" (aim up and out because, like with a plane, you have to compensate for lift being generated at an angle, which means less lift straight-up. You also have slip.) Tilt the disc upwards but throw it downwards, and it'll appear to "bounce."
Also: don't call a "disc" a Frisbee around an Ultimate player. Why? Wham-O saw a bunch of people playing this game called Ultimate, freaked out that someone was using their product for a game. They then tried to a)control it and then when that failed, b)made their own game to try and drown it out. It was a pretty despicable and petty move. Now they mostly spend their time chasing down anyone who uses the word "frisbee". Had they simply been content to sell discs, they'd be selling them by the boatload to Ultimate players. Instead, they got greedy and it backfired on 'em.
Also, Ultrastar's discs (considered the standard) are much more easier on the hand for most, and tend to fly better.
Please help metamoderate.
His invention went far.
"We live in a global world" - Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
I remember how much fun I had throwing a Frisbee...at people and hurting their hands because I threw it so hard (curve? what curve? mine cut through the wind and glided straight... ;)
Still, even though your idea will live on, you'll be missed. You could have created many more interesting things...
Oh, and for those who think about the discus and such being invented before the Frisbee (or Pluto Platter or whatever you wish to call it), keep in mind that the discus only flew in one direction without curving at all. Compare that with the modern Frisbee, which allows for a curve that creates the fun challenge of getting back to a person perfectly. If you really want me to get geeky, I'll note that in order to send it to a person with wind interference, you'd need to approximate the speed of the wind and the direction to determine the right release height, the correct angle of release and the proper amount of release strength. It gets even more complicated when you add the snap of some people's wrists. By the way, sports fans, that disproves the idea that "it's all in the wrist" when it comes to badminton and other games where that practice is preached. After all, you still need to make contact with a shuttlecock for it to even do the proper thing and go over the net, right? That involves your feet and arms, not just your wrist. ;)
I don't want to discus this.
I'd think age has a detrimal effect on the sentiments of a person, as many emotions aren't new and people tend to be more experienced in life and accepting of certain inevatibilities or view of reality which is more consolodated and less overwhelming to a newling in this world.
Also hormonal decline might make the emotional peaks less intense and smooth them out.
Ergo, his sentiments about the decline has taken an extreme in this form for this outlet of this senior of slashdot, and hence, his sentiments (as his general field of sentiments is less jagged but more wavy) we should take this peak of sentimental display seriously as it indicates a significant emotion which jumps way out of the average frustrations of an emotional tuned down individual hence attentionworthy.
In the same line of thought, the sentiments of a junior, which emotional landscape is still very jagged and with extremes, shouldn't be considered too attentioworthy.
Boomerangs have delighted children for millenia.
That's sad.
I have a Wham-O Pluto Platter I found in the attic of my Grandpa's house - it's not the original Bakelite Morrison Pluto Platter, but the plastic version, looks very similar. Mine says "WHAM-O" on the top, but the word "Frisbee" is not on it, from what I can tell mine was made in 1957.
Ageing kills more than all other causes combined, yet is a curable disease. The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant
The "boomerang" aerobie is triangular. You can get a curve out of the ring-shaped ones, but it's not quite the same. You'd have to be incredibly skilled to get it to come back to you.
Also, the aerobie orbiter is much easier to throw than a real boomerang.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
This definitely would not have been posted here ten years ago.
Of course not. Ten years ago it would have been "Father of the Frisbee Dies At 80".
What bothers me more is that, from what I can tell, Netcraft hasn't confirmed this yet. Are we sure this isn't another hoax?
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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The Orbiter also flies absurd distances. I bought one at an American Eagle outlet of all places back around '90 or so. Tried it out in the parking lot immediately. Thought I'd lost it on the first throw, but it kept going in a large circle until it started coming back. It landed nowhere near close enough to catch it but it was only about 30 feet from start. The circle path if flew in was probably in the 200 to 300 foot in diameter range.
Boomerangs have delighted children, rendered roos unconscious and fed families for millenia :-)
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
You know. For kids!
I never had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Morrison, but I played various frisbee-disk games for a lotta years, and even played flying-disk golf at the pro level for a while. But I had a real job, so left the ultra-serious play to other, better players. I heard various stories about Fred over the years. All seemed to indicate that he was friendly, very straightforward man. I was told once that he had bought a hardware store in the early 1960s in Sierra Madre, CA. Folks asked him why he was going to his hardware store every day if he was making so much money in royalties from frisbee sales. "Well, I like owning my own hardware store!", he replied. I really can't prove this story to be true, but if it's not, it oughta be! Thanks for the revolutions, Fred! Adieu.....
This definitely would not have been posted here ten years ago.
Of course not. Ten years ago it would have been "Father of the Frisbee Dies At 80".
Actually, wouldn't it have been "Father of Frisbee celebrates 80th birthday with loving family" ?
I am the inventor of the death frisbee, a coffee can lid with exacto blades stuck through it.
Seriously, has Slashdot jumped the shark? This definitely would not have been posted here ten years ago.
That's because if it was reported 10 years ago, Morrison would have written in to say "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
I like my coffee the way I like my women - roasted and ground up into little tiny pieces.
Boomerangs have delighted children, rendered roos unconscious and fed families for millenia :-)
For generations, when my family has fallen on hard times, we have had to resort to eating boomerangs to survive. What they lack in flavour they make up for in fibre.
I like my coffee the way I like my women - roasted and ground up into little tiny pieces.
Uh, actually, no airfoil, either fixed or rotary, generates lift.
Uh, whut? "The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to fly by generating lift as it moves through the air while rotating." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_disc ).
If you're trying to say "it doesn't generate lift unless it is moving"...well, uh, no shit, sherlock?
Please help metamoderate.