# A Slinky
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 23, 1999, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893 "1999-10-23T01:55:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/1 "1999-10-23T01:55:00Z")
Today they were on sale for 99¢ so I bought one. What exactly are they good for? I never had one
before, not even as a kid.
I know it walks downstairs (alone or in pairs) and makes a slinkity sound…But does it have a use.
I thought I could use it to help rid myself of stress, but I think I’m more apt to poke my eye out. BTW mine wouldn’t walk down the steps.
---
### Author:  [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/2 "1999-10-23T02:05:00Z")
They are a way to keep a simple mind occupied
* * *
“Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good
things.” --Edgar Degas
---
### Author:  [@White\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Wolf)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/3 "1999-10-23T02:09:00Z")
I had about 6 of them (plastic and metal) and none of them ever walked down more than 3 steps. But they’re really good at getting tangled or bent(especially the metal ones).
* * *
**White Wolf**
“Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.”
“Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them.”
---
### Author:  [@Zulu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zulu)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/4 "1999-10-23T02:33:00Z")
In grade 12, we were given a scholarship essay. We had to write a 400+ word essay, and our topic was “Spring.” I wrote a 600 word essay on the Slinky. It was pretty clever, if I do say so myself.
I got all my info from [http://users.andara.com/~bpaul/slinky.html](http://users.andara.com/~bpaul/slinky.html)
It tells the history, fun facts, stuff like that. One use for a Slinky it mentions somewhere there, is that soldiers in Vietnam used Slinkys to improve radio transmission. They would hang the Slinky from a tree, and attach the other end to the radio antenna. I don’t know if it’s true, but it sounds neat.
Good eaves trough(?) protectors. String them along inside, and the water can still get in, but it keeps the leaves out.
I’ve heard lots of little things. Lampshades, Hallowe’en costumes, you can string them along inside those curtain ruffles.
I can never get mine to walk more than 3 steps either.
---
### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/5 "1999-10-23T02:43:00Z")
We used them in high school to demonstrate wave transmission and rebound.
Oh yeah…for those of you with hairy chests…don’t stretch a slinky out real wide without at least a t-shirt.
---
### Author:  [@timmar68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/timmar68)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/6 "1999-10-23T03:09:00Z")
Ok, Rysdad, I won’t!
* * *
MaryAnn
More woman than you’ll ever inflate!
---
### Author:  [@Fyodor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fyodor)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/7 "1999-10-23T04:57:00Z")
Stick a grapefruit in one end, pull a nylon stocking over it, tie it to your waist, put on a kilt, and you have a Scotsman Halloween costume.
---
### Author:  [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/8 "1999-10-23T05:17:00Z")
I found it quite able to go down a whole staircase, actually. As long as it was flung down them towards the hear od a younger sibling…
Slinky’s - They sucked so hard back then, I can’t even feel a tinge of nostalgia!
* * *
Yer pal,
Satan
---
### Author:  [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/9 "1999-10-23T13:20:00Z")
The only fun I ever had with a Slinky was getting my younger bro to hold one end, stretching the Slinky out, then waving it back and forth. That “wave transmission and rebound” thang is pretty cool when you’re 12 or so.
They also piss off cats **real** good.
* * *
You say “cheesy” like that’s a **BAD** thing.
---
### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/10 "1999-10-23T22:18:00Z")
We used to drag ours all over the house and my dad kept having to cut the tangles out with wire cutters. We ended up with 2/3rds, then half, then so little slinky that it was useless. (Er, moreso than usual.) Plastic Slinkys are an evil crime against nature, just like plastic TinkerToys. (Wood or nothing, dammit!)
---
### Author:  [@Jonathon\_David\_Palinor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathon_David_Palinor)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/11 "1999-10-23T22:41:00Z")
Does anybody remember this?
[The Slinky Song](http://www.wavcentral.com/sounds/commercials/slinky.wav)
## I don’t remember ever having a Slinky, poor deprived child that I was. Mom always DID like you best. _sniff_
\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>-(o)-\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<
Life is a tapestry.
Each new day brings with it the opportunity to sew by
word and deed within the heart of someone around us.
Let us choose our colors with care.
---
### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [October 23, 1999, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/12 "1999-10-23T23:34:00Z")
In regards to the above slinky song. There are other slinky toys?
---
### Author:  [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)
#### Post date: [October 24, 1999, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/13 "1999-10-24T00:04:00Z")
In high school, every now and then I would buy something from some toy store (rubik’s cube, slikny, etc) and bring it to school with the intent of starting a fad, trying to see how long it would take before either (a) my classmates lost all interest or (b) the school banned the toy.
More often than not, it was choice (b).
Another favorite moment was when I dressed up as Harpo Marx for Halloween and tried to stay in character the whole day. Now, THAT was fun. . . until a teacher forced me to speak up to answer a question in class under penalty of detention. . . it was the first period class, too. . . ☹
* * *
“I’m just too much for human existence – I should be animated.”
–Wayne Knight
---
### Author:  [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)
#### Post date: [October 24, 1999, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/14 "1999-10-24T00:12:00Z")
Does anyone remember the Slinky Dog? There really was one; he wasn’t just a character in TOY STORY. I also remember that the original Mister Potato Head was just the parts: You were supposed to stick the parts on a real potato, not a plastic one. Then, of course, Mom would tell you to stop playing with your food… :0
* * *
Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to relive it. Georges Santayana
---
### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [October 25, 1999, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/15 "1999-10-25T02:00:00Z")
I am stunned to hear that someone else aside from myself spent a day at school dressed as Harpo Marx.
---
### Author:  [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)
#### Post date: [October 25, 1999, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/16 "1999-10-25T02:56:00Z")
voguevixen: can I use what you just said as a sig file? Seriously. You will be immortalized in my postings alongside Wayne Knight (who, interestingly enough, has a major role in Toy Story 2, even though he isn’t playing a slinky toy. . .)
* * *
“I’m just too much for human existence – I should be animated.”
–Wayne Knight
---
### Author:  [@SqrlCub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SqrlCub)
#### Post date: [October 25, 1999, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/17 "1999-10-25T14:40:00Z")
I remember the slinky dog. It sucked. I think they had a cat too.
I have gotten a slinky to go down about 10 steps. It didn’t happen often though. I always wondered what it would be like to set off 100 slinkies on an escalator in some crowded area. I think that would be funny. 🙂
HUGS!
Sqrl
* * *
Move over Satan. 😉 Now there’s something meatier. [http://smallwonder.simplenet.com/COC.html](http://smallwonder.simplenet.com/COC.html)
---
### Author:  [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)
#### Post date: [October 25, 1999, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/18 "1999-10-25T19:37:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I remember the slinky dog. It sucked. I think they had a cat too.
I’m confused. What’s the point? I figured the biggest feature of slinkies (outside of a physics lab) was the going down stairs thing. If they looked anything like the Toy Story character, how exactly could these animals go down stairs? Or was there something else to them?
* * *
“I’m just too much for human existence – I should be animated.”
–Wayne Knight
---
### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 25, 1999, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/19 "1999-10-25T19:50:00Z")
Well, holding either end of the Slinky in both open palms and “shoooping” it from one palm to the other is kinda hypnotic . . .
---
### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [October 25, 1999, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893/20 "1999-10-25T19:54:00Z")
The other use, as Cecil pointed out in a column I’m too lazy to research out, is as a remote control for old TVs (the ones that used ultrasound remotes).
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-slinky/9893.md?page=2)