# So it's 1985 and someone shows you this

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 6, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403 "2011-04-06T15:50:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/41 "2011-04-09T14:02:16Z")

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I might wonder what the unofficial [Australian aboriginal flag](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_flag) was doing on a US passport.

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**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/42 "2011-04-09T14:41:15Z")

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“No radiation risk”? Of course! From all the atomic wars!

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**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/43 "2011-04-09T15:36:25Z")

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Being employed by a newspaper in 1985 where our typesetters were printing text from photographic negatives onto paper that needed to be developed in a chemical bath, I would guess it was the cover of a glossy news magazine, full of teasers about what was inside.

The image quality and columnar layout would indicate magazine on glossy stock. A Table of Contents would have page numbers, which is why I’d think this was a cover. I might be puzzled by the lack of a publication name.

I was a college grad and some friends at work were getting Tandy computers to store their recipes on, but we were a year or so from getting Macs in the office and I would not have thought this image was a computer screen. And photos of television screens did not look anything like this.

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**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/44 "2011-04-09T18:14:04Z")

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> [@Steve\_MB](#):
>
> There are clues in the left-hand column: “Dems, GOP fail to reach budget deal” and “Opinion: GOP’s gamble to slash deficit”. That would give you the gist of the story.

True, but I’m saying what jumped out at me first, the “Government shutdown” is big, in the top middle, and catches your eye first. In 1985 I may not have been accustomed to how to read a webpage, but webpage layout demonstrates the same principles taht have been in use for layout for hundreds of years.

This may be why I didn’t notice the Van halen story, or the Dems vs. GOP story, they’re tucked away in a small line on the side, “Government shutdown” is in bigger type with a picture.

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