Boomer Zoo

BoomerZoo Almanac for November 18-24, 2007: Gone, but not forgotten

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:15:29 -0700

Like the attack on Pearl Harbor for our parents, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, was a seminal event for the Boomer generation. I’m sure our parents always remembered where they were when they heard the Japa...

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BoomerZoo Almanac for November 11-17, 2007: Some mice and men

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:56:56 -0700

Thirty-seven years ago this week, when most of us still thought mice were mainly useful as smokers to test the carcinogenic properties of tobacco, U.S. patent No. 3541541 was issued to Doug Engelbart for an “X-Y Position Indicator for a display ...

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BoomerZoo Almanac for November 4-10, 2007: So maybe it wasn't such a Waste...

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:52:10 -0800

One November day early in the Boomer years, the poet T. S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Although it would be several years before I made my appearance, I’m sure I never did realize that Mr. Eliot actually lived right up until 1965—on...

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BoomerZoo Almanac for October 28-November 3, 2007: Staying in to see the Wizard

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:37:47 -0800

I doubt I saw the Wizard of Oz when it first hit the small screen, which was on November 3, 1956. I was a too young to be watching something that scary, and I’m not sure how much TV watching we did back in those days, anyway. I do remember my ...

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BoomerZoo Almanac for October 21-27, 2007: Waves of the future

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:55:55 -0800

The original meter was invented by the French in the 1780s, and it’s been regularly made a more precise measurement, most recently at the CGPM (Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures or, in English, the General Conference on Weights & Measures...

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BoomerZoo Almanac for October 14-20, 2007: Jumpin’ Jack Flash! We use gas, gas, gas

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:23:17 -0800

We used to throw our pennies, nickels and dimes into a small container in the car. When we’d saved up a buck, we could put three gallons of gas into the tank. That was in my early driving days, for sure! Then those danged OPEC Arabs refused to he...

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BoomerZoo Almanac for October 7-13, 2007: Did you say you’d like a revolution?

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:13:51 -0800

This week we Boomers remember the end of a revolutionary fighter, the change of heart of a revolutionary scientist, the tactics of a revolutionary organization and the commencement of a cultural revolution. You say you want a revolution Well,...

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BoomerZoo Almanac for September 30-October 6, 2007: Leave it to Sputnik

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:12:03 -0800

Seems almost unimaginable that both Sputnik and Leave it To Beaver were launched on the very same day, but that distinction does go to October 4, 1957. October 4 is now the official start of World Space Week, inaugurated in 1999 by the United ...

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BoomerZoo Almanac for September 23-29, 2007: Nuclear Fall

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:11:21 -0800

While it wasn’t until 1983 that the term “nuclear winter” was coined by American physicist Richard P. Turco (a cohort of Carl Sagan, who literally wrote the book on the subject), no Boomer had been untouched by the whole idea of nuclear war and i...

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BoomerZoo Almanac for September 16-22, 2007: Jocularity, jocularity

nobody@vox.com(Marcia at the BoomerZoo) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:37:36 -0800

It was during this week in 1972 that both “The Bob Newhart Show'' and M*A*S*H premiered on CBS. I’ll bet execs at that network long for the good old days! Having grown up with Bob Newhart, I did take to his show fairly quic...

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