Oh Gawd.
We actually played that game. But we stood still once the dart was thrown up into the air. We stopped when a dart ended up lodged in the hair along the side of my head.
Okay, it was run of mill regular rusty assed metal darts but still.
It’s even worse than that, actually. These were flintlock guns, at a time when the main source of illumination was open flames. It just seems a bit like playing Russian roulette for dinner. http://boingboing.net/2012/12/02/flintlockknife.html
Luggage without wheels, or worse, luggage with those terrible wheels and the leash strap to pull it. How hard was this to figure out? It’s not like wheel technology advanced to the point where it allowed us to figure out to combine heavy travel bags with wheels. And from there, figuring out that the leash design allowed you to pull the damn thing for dozens of feet without it toppling over.
Mail delivery by ballistic missiles. How it even made it past Wile E.'s drawing board has me flabbergasted.
They also acted like a giant gyroscope. Pull back on the stick and not only would the plane climb, it would also yaw sharply to the right because of gyroscopic precession. Apparently good pilots in WWI knew how to use the effect to perform unnaturally tight turns in dogfights.
Opioids are the gold standard in cough supression. I believe, but am not 100% certain, that methadone is the strongest known cough suppressant, for use in extreme cases. And you can buy codeine linctus from a chemist in the UK without a prescription.
I however recommend simple linctus. Comes in more flavours 
Yes, but these were prescription free and contained pure heroin. Unsurprisingly, they also turned out to be incredibly addictive.
**Groom of the Stool.
**Band name(!) as well as a SDMB name.
Yep, I can remember standing there, fascinated, actually looking at my foot bones.
What were people thinking?
Foot binding.
A friend of mine owns one (though all the radioactive material has been removed).
The Tobacco Smoke Enema to treat drowning victims.
Newspapers.
Homeopathy. Of all the woo, I can’t believe that this exists in the modern world.
Radial engines need to be hand cranked a certain number of revolutions before trying to start for just this reason (hydraulic lock and busting parts). Removing plugs would do the same thing. It makes sense that it applies to the similar rotary…though I’m not sure if a rotary actually has an oil sump in the crankcase like a radial?
Radial engines…when they STOP leaking oil, then you know there’s a problem!
There’s an actual parasite that causes zombification. I can’t find the link atm, but i’m sure somebody can jump in.
The one fact I remember is that it causes the host to come to the surface and advertise itself to be eaten by birds, thus spreading the parasite.
It’s a fungus. Though the sheep’s liver fluke has a similarly convoluted life cycle.
How about this for a sitcom,
‘Love thy neighbour’
You should watch this, it is wonderfully cringe- inducing. I cannot imagine why it does not get reruns like all the other shows of the same period.
I had a lot of fun as a kid with the Water Wiggle and the Slip 'N Slide.
Chia Pets Or anything Chia for that matter.