Tales of the Riverbank

No hamsters were harmed in the making of TALES OF THE RIVERBANK--or were they?!?

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 09, 2010 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Television, 1970s, Europe

Al Kaprielian

Goodbye, Al Kaprielian.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 17, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Eccentrics, Regionalism, Television, Weather

Overs and Outs

Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 16, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Humor, Television, 1960s

Thanksgivings of Yore

You still have enough time in the next two weeks to rearrange your life so that your holiday mirrors the Eisenhowerian perfection on display here

Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 14, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Family, Holidays, Television, 1950s

They Had That Back Then? #3

Today's lesson: Flat Screen TV (this is a long one to make up for not posting anything in a while).


From the February 1972 issue of Popular Science.



More in extended >>

Posted By: Salamander Sam - Sat Oct 31, 2009 - Comments (9)
Category: Technology, Television, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s

Early TV Remote

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 08, 2009 - Comments (8)
Category: Technology, Television, 1960s

Romper Room, Aussie Style

Viewing this clip is a Twilight Zone experience for me--and, I expect, for others of my generation. I grew up watching ROMPER ROOM, but the Aussie accent of this gal on the Downunder version jars with my nostalgia. I've fallen into some alternate timeline.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 25, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Insects and Spiders, Television, Children, 1960s

The Cashless Society, As Predicted In 1967.

Here's a clip from the BBC popular science program Tomorrow's World from 1967, talking about how the future will become a cashless society. It's interesting to see that the very first debit-card system shown on the program used PINs rather than signatures to authorize.

Unfortunately, the BBC iPlayer can't be embedded like most online videos, so here's a link to the excerpt in question.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/tomorrowsworld/8012.shtml

This is just one of a number of Tomorrow's World clips the BBC is making freely available online. There are some real gems on the site, including a first look at the "light-pen" from 1967, an early screen outing for the Moog synthesizer from 1969, and a demonstration of one of the first true mobile phone systems from 1979.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/tomorrowsworld/index.shtml

Oops, it seems not everyone can view the Online BBC Archive. For those who can't here's a couple of stills from the electronic banking and mobile phone segments mentioned above.





Love that funky retro dial! :lol:

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Mon Sep 14, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Futurism, Television, 1960s

The Nostrils Cannae Take It, Captain!

In the future, all people will smell this way! Well maybe not, but design house Genki Wear has launched three Star Trek themed scents for the trekkie who has everything, including B.O.

For the men there's a choice of Tiberius or Red Shirt. The former refers to the "T" of James T. Kirk, and presumably makes you smell like a womanising maverick. The latter an allusion to the numerous expendable extras from the original series; though why smelling like someone with a life expectancy of minutes is supposed to be a turn on is not explained. For the women there's Pon Farr, named for the stage of a Vulcan's life where their emotions come to the surface and they become both aggressive and sexually receptive. Fortunately for Earthwomen (and their partners) the pointy ears and domestic violence are optional, and staging fights to the death with gardening implements is not advised.

All three fragrances are available to buy from Genki Wear at $29.99 each.



(Images from social shopping network Kaboodle.)

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Fri Aug 28, 2009 - Comments (10)
Category: Aliens, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Pop Culture, Television, 1960s, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

I’ll Huff And I’ll Puff…

From the BBC children's science show "Bang Goes The Theory...", engineer Jem Stansfield builds himself a giant vortex cannon, and tries to knock down buildings made of straw, wood and bricks...



Impressive, though I'm sure the "Big Bad Wolf" would not have had much of a problem if the third little pig had likewise left out the mortar. Mind you, one of these is just what I need to keep the neighborhood cats out of my garden! :cheese:

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Tue Aug 18, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Destruction, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Guns, Inventions, Science, Experiments, Television, Myths and Fairytales