Cranks My Tractor

Double Dog Dare

As for the term, we’ve all heard it, the origin although seemingly to be of American invention, probably is not. Younger folks probably thing it was invented by the folks who wanted to worry about Ralphie shooting his eye out with his Red Ryder BB gun in the movie, “A Christmas Story.”

It seems that the folks over in England want to claim the origin of the term, probably rightfully so. There was a book, “The Child in Folk-Thought,” published in England back in 1896 that they claim first used the term. In the book, the author discusses American children using terms like, “I dare you; I black dog dare you; I double black dog dare you.” Over the years, the black dog part was simplified to the “dog dare” and “double dog dare.”

The “black dog” term was slang for a bad or counterfeit shilling, the term used by thieves dating back to around 1700 in England. Why a black dog? It seems black dogs were scarier than others. I wish someone would tell my big black poodle that he was scary; although I don’t think it would work. He seems to roll over when a Chihuahua comes into the yard.

T Minus 13 and Counting

At first I worried a little, which is foolish. I worried because I would be putting people out of jobs, or at least contributing to doing it in a way. Then I used the car wreck and speeding analogies, which seemed to make sense. In other words, “Should I have a wreck in order to keep the local body shop in business?” or “Should I go out on the interstate and break the speed limit until I get caught a few times in order to help the police budget?”

Of course the answer to both of those questions is an absolute “No.”

Maybe I was more worried about the inconvenience of learning to do things differently or not having all the bells and whistles I’m used to having. Honestly, that is probably closer to my actual worries than the wrecking and speeding and making sure folks keep their jobs analogy.

Being Replaced by Yourself

In this day and time of technology, where postcards have been replaced by email and text messages and video chats, it causes us to worry about other things. Things like our jobs being automated or being replaced by a robot or something. Customer service for many industries has been farmed out to other countries where the labor is a fraction of what it takes to pay somewhere here to do the job.

What do we make? What do we create? What are we to do?

There is no real answer, I know there are doctors in other countries reading x-rays in the middle of the night from patients here in America from thousands of miles away. I want to see my doctor and I want to be able to look into his or her eyes.

On the Fly

Have you ever heard of Gideon? Not the Gideon from the Bible who showed up with too many men for the battle. I’m not talking about the fellows who pass out the little New Testaments either. Do they still do that? These are both good “Gideons.”

The Gideon I’m speaking of is kind of indicative of the Hebrew origins of the name, which means “Destroyer,” “Mighty warrior,” or “Feller of trees.”

He invented the modern zipper and his name was Gideon Sundback.

Gideon kind of improved and perfected the idea of a couple other people. A fellow named Elias Howe patented what he called an “Automatic, Continuous, Clothing Closure” in 1851, but was so busy pushing sewing machines on folks that he didn’t bother with marketing his invention.

Morning Gas Problems

What kind of repair person tries to get you to fix your own stuff before bringing it in to their shop? Or, what kind of business turns business down? The kind you want to do business with in my opinion.

The fellow who works on my yard blowers, lawn mowers and such is the kind of fellow I’m talking about who does just what I am describing. After I tell him my issue, he starts diagnosing the problem and telling me everything I should try before bringing it to him (and having to pay him).

Unfortunately, these types of businesses are not the norm, but fortunately these types of businesses are the ones that seem to really do well.

You just think you need that...

Going to the dentist is not my favorite thing to do. I can’t really imagine that anyone really puts the experience at the top of their “fun list.” However, going to the dentist is necessary and you can often prevent a lot of bad things from happening if you take care of your teeth.

When I go to the dentist, I like to try to make conversation with the nice young lady who does the cleaning and scolding and flossing speeches. You know – she cleans your teeth, scolds you for not doing certain things enough or too much and then gives long speeches on flossing.

This particular young lady was very nice, but I wouldn’t let her lecture me too much. On this trip to the dentist, it was time for me to get all of my x-rays again. You know the left, right, top, bottom and bite on this while we shoot this x-ray gun at you routine.

Fictitious Fires

Recently, we had a friend whose house caught on fire in the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately, she, her family and pets all got out of the house. As most folks can only imagine, it was a very traumatic experience for them.

For those who have gone through such an experience, they know the feelings of helplessness and sadness of losing their belongings, sometimes even loved ones.

It surprises me the way folks react sometimes. On some of our local internet news sites, at least one person questioned the number of resources/units that arrived to fight the fire.

Really, they did.

Percy would be proud...

We have all heard about the things that were invented as a result of mistakes. I think I’ve even written about a few before. Life is full of mistakes, thus there should be some good things that come from the mistakes we make.

The slinky - you know the one that’s fun for a girl and a boy? A naval engineer was trying to make a meter that would monitor power on battleships. The engineer dropped it on the ground, maybe even on some stairs and “Voila” the slinky was born.

John Hopps, an electrical engineer, was doing research on hypothermia and using radio frequency heating to restore body temperature when he discovered that a heart stopped due to being too cold could be restarted using artificial stimulation. Hopps realization and research is now inside a lot of folks – his research led to the pacemaker.

Opening Day

It was easiest to conceal in early April and October, because the weather was such that a boy could wear a long sleeve shirt to school in Alabama and not look too odd.

Both of these times of year were best because it meant I could hide “my equipment” for Major League Baseball’s Opening Day and the World Series. Many more games were played during the day back then – there was no ESPN or Internet or all these fancy phones that you could watch a baseball game on.

There was radio…

It was AM radio…

It was heaven…

Could you please be more felicific?

We live in a time where we are always learning about new ways to do things and new technologies that supposedly make life easier. To be honest, I sometimes have a hard time operating a cell phone and I’m supposed to be some sort of scientist. It’s just that things often move so fast that we can’t keep up.

Having teenagers in the house is a nice way to learn how to operate your cell phone or about how to fix your computer.

I’m still needed though. It’s a nice feeling. I gave one of my children a yoyo for Christmas and I had to show them how to operate it.

I’m not kidding.