Weekend Open Thread
Back in the last century, our counterpart to the internet involved a lot of imagination and face-to-face interactions. It was also a good way to learn how to interact with other people, to develop teamwork and leadership, to work our “hands on skills”, and so on. Unlike the internet, if you had something to say, it had to be said to someone who knew you. This increased the chances that a lesson would be learned in the School of Hard Knocks. Enjoy your weekend!
Category: Open thread
First
CONG-GRATS as usual CW.
First
Almost
Sorry about that, Chief.
3rd
Getting better.
A three-peat for the Commish!! The trivia will be added later, soon as I get home from the cardiologist.
Good luck
I would have to see the cardiologist if I get 1st on WoT.
Well, hurry up…
We’re all waiting…
In the spirit of Daniel Bernath, Hack Stone hereby proclaims himself “Honorary First Commenter of The Weekend Open Thread”.
Since our taxes were due to be remitted this week, Hack Stone is proud to announce that the proud but humble woman owned business, under the esteemed leadership of Psul of The Ballsack, filling in for Elaine Ricci who has been unavoidably occupied the last decade, has once again filed as a Non-Profit Organization.
Have they ever found Elaine Ricci?
Bless her heart.
Maybe they need to put out an age-progressed picture of her on the back of a milk carton.
Some good news. Yesterday, I met a young mother pushing her child in a stroller, she stopped me for a chat. She told me she couldn’t talk for long as she had to get her daughter home. She told me how her daughter loved playing outside, in fact (she continued) her daughter would rather play outside that watch TV. Oh my, children who are not addicted to electronic devices have not gone extinct.
If you see the young lady again, ask mom to teach her daughter how to play red light green light 123,, Simon says, hit the penny on the sidewalk expansion crack, punch ball, street roller skating, hide and seek and if the Lady has a son, we go into the same as above plus stoop ball, stick ball, mumbly peg, chinese aces (asses) up against the hand ball wall, ringa levio, baseball/Davy Crocket card flipping, tag, co ed musical chairs. I may have forgotten a few more…
Those games would be an improvement on what my next door neighbor is teaching his grandchildren; I think his game is squeeze Uncle Sam for every penny you can get and tell everyone why you deserve it.
Oh, by the way, I also saw a kid (about 10ish years old) fall of his bicycle, so I went over to see if he was okay. Before I even got close I noticed he wasn’t screaming, crying, nor wailing. I saw a girl, who I think was younger than him, go look at him, she talked to him and then went on about her business. Another boy asked if he could ride the kid’s bike since he wasn’t using it. I tell you what, I’m proud of those kids. If they can keep at it, they may grow up to be able to take of themselves.
I forgot to add what a doctor told the Mrs and me when we were concerned about the many bruises and stitches our kid got. We were asked about her daily activities. She had lots of outdoor activities and, like me, she was stubborn enough she had to try everything twice. The doctor left us with these words of wisdom, “Couch potatoes don’t get bruises.”
Different era for me born in the mid 1940’s and growing up in the 1950’s. I have a very hard time adjusting and everytime I try to use the phone, my blood pressure goes up dealing with those automated voice systems. At one time, we called a business and what we called a live person telephone operator answered and you didn’t have to yell and scream at the new age automated voices.
I was born one morning in the ’50’s when the sun didn’t shine. We had a party line, many were the times our neighbor from across the mowin’ field would yell at me to get off the phone – one long ring was for her, two short was for us. It took me forever to figure that out.
Present! And that childhood construction site would’ve involved small-scale blasting via Black Cat firecrackers.
We used to take those heavy hollow cardboard package holders and removed the metal wire and wrap a rubber band around it then place those strike anywhere wood matches inside the tube and shoot it out into a wall or sidewalk. we also used to cut off the match heads and wrap a bunch in aluminum foil and throw them against a wall.. Florida banned them a little later after I moved there in 2007.
Yeah, the Ohio Blue Tip matches.
The “blue” tip was some sort of explosive that you could
cut off with a razor blade and make stuff with.
And then there was the rolls of “caps” for toy guns.
Nah, you gotta hit the whole roll of caps with a hammer. Probably the leading cause of childhood tinnitus and hearing loss back in our yute.
Ha,Ha…. I was going to mention that.
Thanks for picking up on it.
My buddy and I figured out if one puts the cap on the door latch and then slams the door, the cap would explode. I still remember his father screaming at us for slamming the door so much, “If you want to get in trouble, go outside and find some!” Wise words indeed.
Trump managing to temporally open the Strait of Hormuz that was already open before the war started while replacing a 86 year old religious zealot Supreme leader that was against nuclear weapons, to a 56 year old supreme leader that lost his entire family to US strikes and will almost certainly pursue nukes…
Was some truly 5-Dementia chess on Trump’s part.
I’m sorry your boy Swallwell turned out to be exactly who everyone knew he was. How’s your progressive/liberal/socialist utopia doing? Any word on when that train will be operable? I understand you have oil refining issues, any idea what caused that? No, it wasn’t the evil orange man living in your head…
Gavin Nuisance cries California deserves a train system like Japan’s. With all the money that’s gone off into the vapor, a train system like Japan’s could have been made. A train leaving SF, Sacramento, LA, Stockton, etc every 10 – 15 minutes hooking up with other cities with smaller trains going to the smaller towns would be more like Japan. No the Nuisance wants a bullet train that only the well to do can afford. I tell you what, keeping up with the Jone’s is no way to run a government.
The Transcontinental Railroad from Chicago to California was built in LESS THAN half the time the CA HSR boondoggle has been in existence, I just wonder how much of that money wasted has reached the coffers of the likes of Newscum, Pelosi, Schiff and others?
Where on this thread was even a mention of Trump made until your dumb Koolaid drinking ass showed up. Fuck you, people are talking about their childhood and good memories. Thats right your lizard ass was hatched, you have no good memories. You need a tattoo on your forhead “HATCHED TO LOSE”.
He reminds me of the wealthy yet shit headed kid who lived down the street. The one who’d get tagged out by a mile and would stomp and cry he was safe added in with, “It’s my ball, I’m taking it home with me right now!” You know the one who’d get mad when someone remembered an old torn up ball he or she found outside the ball park and someone else had a roll of ‘lectric tape. The ball would get wrapped up with tape and we were back to the game. Shit head would then point out his ball was better and then run home crying when he was told we didn’t want to play with him anyways.
He’s a 24K clueless dipshit, a dingleberry as well!
I was thinking he’s a schmendrick; but no. A schmendrick you can like as long as he keeps his mouth shut and stays out of the way when grownups are talking. The commissar is yutz bucking for demotion to a putz.
And yet I still feel a sense of satisfaction that we’ve finally paid them back for my fellow Marines in Beirut-1983.
Awww, poor little snowflake feeling lonely again? You remind me of the LOSERS I saw at teh “No Kings” bawl-fest that took place in my locale, which is in a County where DJT took a little over SEVENTY percent of the votes cast, I crashed it wearing my MAGA hat and sporting a pro-Trump sign, any of them I asked any sane questions about their stance just yelled “F- Trump” because they don’t have even the slightest clue about themselves or what they stand for, just like you!
Scroll down to skivvy stackers post. I believe thats what you really meant to type out in your comment.
Who knew the commie cuttlefish has an inside track on the Ayatollah and his regime. Maybe he should register as an agent for Iran. Funny how the Supreme Leader was against nuclear weapons for his country but it was rapidly producing everything they needed to build them.
Our resident retard pokes his pointy head from under a rock…
Oh, and #47 has deal with Indonesia and Malacca Straights that you can SUCK ON…US has influence/control over these international choke points:
Panama-check
Hormuz-check
Malacca-check
You can SUCK ON THAT TOO!
Missed the drop darn it, but here.
My grands are fortunate enough to have a National Forest to play in – and do so. Ride a bike / run over to the cousins, climb the neighbor’s large oak, catch tadpoles in the pond…
Their imaginations are in good shape.
Y’all have a great weekend. I think I’ll mosey over to the NRA convention in Houston this weekend. Drool on some cool stuff.
NOOOOOO!!!! WHY???
New ‘Top Gun’ Movie Is Officially A Go, And There’s A Genius Plot That Must Happen
https://www.outkick.com/culture/top-gun-3-script-development
Here we go again. Just great.
*grin*
“I feel the need….the need for Ben-Gay!!!”
Tommy is gettin’ up there in years.
Well, present and accounted for again late, but I’m here.
Well shit, a trifecta of top gun is that what we really want did we really ask for that?
Do we really deserve that? What did we do wrong?
And then I’m just gonna drop this here and you can replace the word Black with the word Gay.
In a “real” picture from my childhood, those kids would have been taping M80s to the trucks!
M80’s are for mailboxes. Allegedly…
I do pine for the days when our only “screen time” was the after school cartoons.
ROP FORTY as Casey Kasem, present and unaccountable as I once again award myself Honorary First.
((((OVER))))
Not mention:
And:
That particular cool toy is not available anymore, but my mom still has the set from when we were kids.
A couple of kids lose an eye and the namby-pamby brigade prances in and spoils the fun for everyone!
Speaking of one eye…
I have a few scars I blame on Evel Kneivel. He wasn’t the best role model.
Did you ever have one of “those” days?
I got out of the cardiologist this afternoon with a good report – my heart is now flowing at 40%, where it had been down to 25% or so right after the heart attack. Went home, had dinner, sat there enjoying the evening, with that nagging feeling that I’d forgotten to do something …
Then it hit me. The trivia column.
Here it is, with my apologies for the lengthy delay. But hey, at least I have a three-peat in the FIRSTs!
DID YOU KNOW…?
Was one of Hitler’s top advisors half American?
By Commissioner Wretched
didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com
Copyright © 2026
April moves along at it usual pace, and we are getting deeper into spring.
Ah, isn’t it wonderful?
Yes, actually, it is.
I hope your April is going as well as it can possibly go, and that the rest of the year is even better for you!
How about some trivia? Got some fresh stuff right here!
Did you know …
… it’s not hazardous to live near a nuclear power plant? Scientists estimate that you get five times as much radiation from sitting in front of your television that you would get if you lived next door to a nuclear power station. (Sitting in front of the power station would provide better entertainment than television.)
… almost 88% of the world’s population lives in the Northern Hemisphere? (Which makes me wonder if the other 12% know something we don’t.)
… a feat exists which has never been accomplished by a Major League Baseball player? I refer to the home run cycle. You may be familiar with a player hitting for the cycle – a single, double, triple and home run in one game. It’s been done 350 times in MLB history. A natural cycle, hitting those four in order, is much rarer, having only taken place 14 times. But the one that’s never been done is the home run cycle – a solo homer, a two-run shot, a three-run shot, and a grand slam, all in the same game. In fact, it’s only happened twice in professional baseball, both in the minor leagues. (Batter up!)
… the first collegiate all-female baseball team was fielded in 1866? It was at Vassar College, an all-women’s school at the time. (If they were the first, who did they play?)
… the first commercial product manufactured in North America was exported in 1608? It was a glass bottle blown in the Jamestown settlement. (Did it come with a deposit?)
… good ideas don’t always pay off? Take, for instance, the White Bicycle Plan set forth in the city of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1965. The idea was to provide free public bicycles for anyone to use going from place to place. Within just one month, most of the bikes had either been stolen or dumped into canals. (They expected something different?)
For some reason Hack Stone sees those “commuter bicycles” abandoned in the most baffling of places. You would assume that if someone were to make use of one of those “bike shares”, they would be left at places that someone would board a bus or train. But no, in the National Capital Region, Hack Stone has seen these bicycles left on the shoulder of Route 1 in Alexandria as it crosses over I-495, on Malcolm X Boulevard under I-295 near the front gate of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, and most perplexing on the left shoulder of I-295 just south of the sewage treatment plant.
Maybe those abandoned scooters have aspirations of growing up to become broke down, derelict Jaguars? Maybe they are just scouting out prefered breakdown/abandoned locations?
… one of Hitler’s top advisors was part American? Baldur von Schirach (1907-1974) served the Third Reich as leader of the Hitler Youth and later as Gauleiter (party leader) of Vienna. Von Schirach’s background was very strange for a German leader – his father was a dual German-American citizen and his mother was fully American. In fact, von Schirach was a descendant on his mother’s side of Arthur Middleton (1742-1787), a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Born in Berlin, von Schirach did not learn German until he was five years old, English being his first language. He first fell into the orbit of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) in the mid-1920s. Hitler made him Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader) in 1931, placing him at the head of the Hitler Youth organization. After he was drafted into the Wehrmact in 1939, he served as an officer for two years, winning the Iron Cross 2nd Class. Following service, von Schirach was named Gauleiter of Vienna and oversaw the deportation of Jews from the city for the remainder of the war. Tried at Nuremburg on charges of crimes against humanity following the conflict, he was sentenced to 20 years in Spandau prison, and served every day of his sentence.
… jurors have unrealistic expectations of modern forensic science? That’s because of television programs like CSI and NCIS. The shows, which are built around forensic science, often use convoluted explanations and somewhat dodgy technology not currently available to wrap up the cases in an hour … which does not happen in the real world. (Duh.)
And on the other side of the coin, Adolf Hitler’s nephew (his half-brother’s son) served in the US Navy as a Corpsman during WWII.
… Russia has its own version of an American situation comedy? A spinoff of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the show is set in a Moscow bar named Philadelphia, and it’s called “В Москве всегда солнечно” (It’s Always Sunny in Moscow). (Well, maybe it is, I don’t know.)
… the inventor of the motion picture camera is implicated in the disappearance of another inventor? Some of the earliest-ever motion picture scenes were filmed by Louis LePrince (1841-1890), a French artist who created and built his own movie camera. But LePrince mysteriously vanished in 1890, and credit for inventing the movie camera was claimed by Thomas Edison (1847-1931). Two years after LePrince’s son Adolphe (1872-1901) appeared in a court case challenging Edison’s claim, the younger LePrince was found dead. Modern historians give LePrince credit for taking the world’s first motion picture footage. (Film at 11.)
… the longest average lifespan in the world can be found in a small European country? In the nation of Andorra, a tiny enclave between Spain and France, the average lifespan of the people is 83.5 years. (Ah, those lucky Andorrans!)
… two Olympic medalists shared their medals? In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Japanese pole vaulters Shuhei Nishida (1910-1997) and Sueo Oe (1914-1941) tied for second place, but declined to compete against each other to break the tie. Olympic officials awarded Nishida the silver medal and Oe the bronze, but when the pair returned to Japan, they had their medals cut in half and joined the two parts together as “friendship” medals. (Now that’s how you handle such things!)
… ice applied to the back of the neck may stop a nosebleed? If you find yourself with a nosebleed, and it goes on for more than 15 minutes, try applying an ice pack to the back of your neck. The cold constricts the blood vessels which lead into the head and may reduce or even stop the bleeding from your nose. (Worth a try, anyway.)
Now … you know!
Hack Stone came across something on Al Gore’s Amazing Internet (peace be upon him) stating that mustard can stop your hiccups, or hiccoughs if you prefer. Hack carried that knowledge for years, then a few years back, while conversing with an accountant preparing his income taxes, it somehow came up, and she swore it was true.
So, here are 15 remedies for curing the hiccups. Please note that Hack Stone enterprises does not endorse these cures and is only presenting them for entertainment purposes. If symptoms of hiccups persist, please consult a licensed physician or a disbarred attorney who does not have the ability to read a fuel gauge on an airplane.
https://homeremedybook.com/home-remedies-for-hiccups/