Back in the '60's, I remember a municipality in California that had a water shortage, so it created a clever and effective campaign to get people to lower their water consumption. It worked. In fact it worked so well that the utilities revenues fell to a point that they had to raise the rates to cover the over-head.
I directed a play recently. During the first scene one of the characters had to make a phone call. As the show is set in 1940, the practical phone was an old Bakelite Bell dial phone, complete with a cloth-covered cord.
The first time the actor (age apx. 27) tried dialing he struggled and I asked if the phone was working. He said, "No, it won't turn." I rechecked it and, yes, it did work. Then I had him show me and, of course, he was turning it widdershins! Priceless. I soon had him operating it like he had done it his whole life.
Strangely, he didn't seem very concerned when I cautioned him that widdershins was bad luck and that he should be more careful.
I was the computer geek in my class in`69 when I graduated. I was a whiz at Basic programming. I remember typing real time over a 33 to some girls at another school after the timesharing on the mainframe was over (loaded by paper tape, of course). IM in the sixties.
Slashdot Mirror
equally an editor that worked on Heinlein.
Back in the '60's, I remember a municipality in California that had a water shortage, so it created a clever and effective campaign to get people to lower their water consumption. It worked. In fact it worked so well that the utilities revenues fell to a point that they had to raise the rates to cover the over-head.
I directed a play recently. During the first scene one of the characters had to make a phone call. As the show is set in 1940, the practical phone was an old Bakelite Bell dial phone, complete with a cloth-covered cord.
The first time the actor (age apx. 27) tried dialing he struggled and I asked if the phone was working. He said, "No, it won't turn." I rechecked it and, yes, it did work. Then I had him show me and, of course, he was turning it widdershins! Priceless. I soon had him operating it like he had done it his whole life.
Strangely, he didn't seem very concerned when I cautioned him that widdershins was bad luck and that he should be more careful.
Kids, I tell you.
I was the computer geek in my class in`69 when I graduated. I was a whiz at Basic programming. I remember typing real time over a 33 to some girls at another school after the timesharing on the mainframe was over (loaded by paper tape, of course). IM in the sixties.
I find that mixing up the oil & peanut butter works fine if you then get more exercise by tightening the cap and storing it upside down in the fridge.