Everybody gets to see one eventually. Maybe not in real ‘life’ exactly.
As a youth in Indiana in the 80s it was commonly known as Testicle Tech.
Today I learned that Sylvester Stallone and George W. Bush both celebrate their 77th birthday today. They were both born on July 6, 1946.
You know, once I went out to the fields with grandpa, on a tractor, natch, and I watched him mow the wheat using a scythe (what did your family use??), but, now that you mention it, I can’t remember where he had it attached while driving down the road.
A combine?
I’m actually a city boy, but I lived on a kibbutz for a time when I was younger. I didn’t work in the Fields Section that much, but I remember that it was all wrenches, grease and power tools, and no pre-industrial farming equipment.
Ball State was a youth in the 80s?
Couple possibilities there. One, there was a brief period in the 80s when a small midwestern university briefly became corporeal. Two, a dire lack of caffeine this morning enabled both poor comprehensibility and a latent juvenile sense of humor in me.
And a former copy editor’s pedantry.
TIL that almost all of the Beatles’ most memorable riffs (I Feel Fine, Day Tripper, Paperback Writer…*) are just a variation on a riff recorded by Bobby Parker in 1961.
*You can add more than a few Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple songs to that list.
In my grandfather’s case, it was not so much pre-industrial as non-industrial. He made a living, though; not sure if that is possible these days.
Reminds me of one of my favorite ads. One of the unique things about MTV when it debuted was that it was on 24 hours a day. Back then, most stations “signed off” at midnight or the wee hours.
So death showed up (carrying a scythe… yay, we’re on topic) for a teenage boy, who replied “But I’m watching MTV…”
“Oh, that’s all right. I’ll come back when it’s over.”
Kid says “Wheww…” and goes back to watching.
This weekend a celebration is being held to mark the 200th anniversary of Tunnel Road, Reigate – which is about a third of the way from London to Brighton. This location is significant because, 200 years ago, Brighton was becoming the place to take in some sea air – which justified the expense of tunnelling under Reigate Castle. Coaches were then charged six pence* for the privilege of using the new road.
The displays along Tunnel Road proclaim that this was the first road tunnel built in the UK “and possibly Europe” – although (ahem) they seem to have forgotten that a road tunnel was built on the Via Flamina back in 77 CE.
Tunnel Road has been closed to traffic for about fifty years. The tunnel was designed by William Constable, who also designed the second suspension bridge built in England – over the same road, just north of Reigate. He sounds like an interesting character (he was also a pioneering photographer) but he’s a tough google, partly because William Constable is a pretty common name.
When I first moved south, some 4 decades ago, I lived in Reigate – so it was cool to be back there and doing a little learning this morning. Oh, and we had no idea about the celebration until we turned up - so we did stumble across it, as required by the OP. 
j
* - at the time there were 240 pennies in a pound sterling
ETA: picture of the site of the original suspension bridge:
I gather this is a picture of the original bridge or one nearby.
Yep, has to be - nice find! I thought it would be straightforward finding a picture, but struggled. Silly me for not checking out museums in New Zealand (!).
Good job.
j
And TIL that, in the same way that there are red lists for endangered/critically endangered plants, birds etc - there is a red list for endangered crafts in the UK. No, really - here’s the 2023 list:
Crafts that are now believed to be extinct in the UK include gold beating and lacrosse stick making. The critically endangered list includes bell founding; clog making; glass eye making; horse hair weaving; and straw hat making. Slightly less worrying, but nevertheless on the endangered list, we have cricket bat making; fairground art; illumination; and rope making.
Each craft listed has a link - that’s how I know that “Illumination” refers to manuscripts, and that there are only 2-3 full time illuminators in the country and 6-10 part timers (plus quite a few hobbyists.)
Be warned, you can lose yourself in this for hours.
j
I was just watching videos on YouTube and one was a recording of CBS news coverage of the assasination of JFK. I was in third grade at the time so old enough to watch news, and knew of course who Walter Cronkite was.
Someone in the comments of this video commented on how Kennedy and Cronkite were of the same generation, so I looked it up and sure enoughj, Cronkite was less than six months older than the president. As I watched him through the years he never seemed to change. I thought, as a kid, that JFK looked young, but Cronkite older.
A few days short of 7 months, if my math is right. They would have, in theory, graduated HS in the same class.
You are right. I just never thought of Cronkite as young. And this is when I thought kids in junior high looked like adults.
I am a year and a half younger than my next younger sister, and we were only a year apart in school. I was born NYE and she was born in June. I could have gone to kindergarten when I was four, going on five, but my folks, thank goodness, held me back.
My sister and I are one year eleven months and two days apart but were one grade apart because we straddle the December 1st cut off.
I recently leared that it’s best to use the expensive oil recommended by your lawn mower’s manual.
Apparently the additives in “lawn motor oil” are superior to oil that’s used in car engines. That’s because the (better) additive that’s used in lawn motor oil are not compatible with car engines because they will destroy the catalytic converter.
In other words, lawn mowers don’t have catalytic converters, so they can use “better” additives in oil.