Depends upon your definition of “a long time” A lot of things we think of as vampire tropes were invented by Bram Stoker for Dracula, and didn’t exist before then. In fact, notable things like “Vampires Expiring in Sunlight” are even more recent, coming from the movies. “Vampires dying under ULtraviolet Light” is even more recent. I wrote an article about that one.
But you’re right about zombies. Before Romero, they were just animated corpses that were super-creepy because they walked around. Romero had them eating people, which changed the game.
this was lampshaded in killer clowns from outer space … the funny thing is the sheriff answering in the movie had an actor that was known for playing hardass law enforcement types so he played it straight which made it even funnier …
Or the story where the “dummy” is the real one, and the apparent ventriloquist is the dummy?
That one’s been done at least three times (including “The Glass Eye,” an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents featuring a very young William Shatner, before he was even on The Twilight Zone or The Brother Karamazov.)
I can remember when relatives “just visited”, even with no door knocking, especially in good weather, when the people they were visiting were likely to be outside or sitting on a porch. My sense is that things are way more formal these days.
Go back forty years, I had some friends who routinely visited me (and my room-mate) on weeknights. They’d have to ring the bell downstairs, but we always let them in. I can recall doing stuff like that myself, however I’m referring to a city location, mostly apartment buildings and brownstones.
I remember when relatives and friends just dropped by with no prior notice. But even in the sixties, friends/relatives/neighbors didn’t just walk in through the unlocked front door as I often see on TV. They rang the bell or knocked on the door. The only exception might be a former resident, by which I mean an adult child who still didn’t walk in through the unlocked from door - they had a key and used it to open the front door.
I lived in 2 large share houses around 1990. I’m sure I had a door key to both those houses, but I don’t remember using it. We didn’t worry about criminals wandering in, because (1) there was always someone home, and (2) we didn’t own anything worth stealing anyway.
It helped that the climate was such that we didn’t have to seal up the house against the weather.
Friends would just wander in to the kitchen to see who was home. In a large house with small shared space, you didn’t expect any privacy in the kitchen anyway.
I haven’t read this entire thread and odds are that it has been mentioned but in real life eavesdropping on a conversation is rarely a path to hijinks ensuing. Rather, a simple, “Pardon me for intruding on your conversation, as it does not concern me I will mind my own business.”
Three’s Company was a trips into itself… lol.
The funniest episode I saw concerning this was Janet’s dad visiting and after coming to the usual wrong conclusions she demanded to know why her dad was being taken disadvantage of by this woman called " The Rapist"!.. (He was seeing a therapist.)
Each row on ours (proprietary) was a register. (we had 6)
An additional row was for entry on the console itself.
Another row was for the instruction being executed.
This was on a 16 bit mini.
…and yes, we had tape drives, paper tape readers and gigantic (not floppy) disk drives–both single platter and triple platter–about 14 inches in diameter.
Out tape drives were all for reading and writing sequentially–no RA method.
reading data, programs, doing data backups and program backups–and capturing core when it crashed.
…and yes I mean CORE memory.
Why? Because CORE (with battery backup) did not have to be reloaded on a power fail.
Sexy stuff back then!
If you fall 50 ft but hit a large tree limb before you hit the ground, it will not save you. Tree limbs are hard, and all your kinetic energy goes into a very small part of your body, which will not be happy ending.
Likewise, if you fall more than a couple of feet and try to catch a ledge with your fingers on the way down, it will not work.
If you fall with someone and land on them, they will not break your fall much. Both of you will die.
Depends on a number of factors. If you catch that thing right away (i.e. before you’ve built up enough speed), and it slows you down gently enough, you might survive (though I suspect your dentist will not be pleased with the abuse you’ve heaped upon your chompers).
If it tries stopping you cold, chances are your teeth will get pulverized / ripped out of your head - and there won’t be enough left by the time you hit the ground to even ID you based on dental records.
Basically, think of a parachute slowing you down. As I understand the process, you freefall for a little bit, then deploy it. I gather there’s a bit of a JERK as the chute first deploys. But if you instead fall that same distance and your harness catches on something that stops the harness dead in the air, well, the mushy parts of you will try to keep on going, and I suspect you won’t make it down in a single piece.
The key to surviving impact with a planet is to lose relative speed slowly.
The key difference between an airplane landing or an airplane turning into an oversize lawn dart is the nature of the impact with the ground. In the “lawn dart” scenario all the potential energy is given up at once, resulting in crumpled aluminum containing mush. In the normal landing scenario the speed/energy is reduced gradually so when the airplane finally touches the ground it is a gentle tap that does no damage. The same amount of energy is involved in both cases, the difference in result is how the energy is managed (or not).
Likewise, if you are inside a house that is hurtling toward earth after, say, being knocked off a cliff, you cannot be saved simply by opening the front door and stepping out milliseconds before impact a la Bugs Bunny.
Next you’re going to tell me that I didn’t cheat death when I ran off a cliff.
I just paused and said “What would Bugs do?” The answer was simple, I just turned around and slowly walked back, NOT LOOKING DOWN.
That part is the key. The duck I’d been chasing forgot that part, his body started falling, stretching his neck. He had time for one clever quip before his neck snapped back to regular size, and his head was gone from view. The next thing I knew, there was a WHOOMP, and I looked over the cliff edge to see a duck-shaped hole in the canyon floor.
I don’t see why people think I’m making this up, or worse, that it’s somehow funny. It haunts my dreams.
Nope! Also, if you are a damsel falling from a skyscraper and Superman flies up at you and extends his arms to catch you, you will hit his arms at 120-180 mph and die.
And Superman will have to send his suit out for dry cleaning.
