The wit of Gye Greene

Gye Greene has an endless supply of bad jokes: he’s a regular corny-copia.


--TG

Lists of Technological Progressions

Although people of my generation did not get to wittness the invention of the airplane, or the transition from horses to automobiles, we forget how many technological changes we have been witness to.

Below are a handful of lists -- in approximate chronological order -- that Gye Greene and I came up with last night. At which point along these timelines, dear reader, did you come in?


Car Audio
-No radio in car
-AM radio comes standard
-AM/FM radio comes standard
-(Was ''AM/FM with 8-track player'' ever standard?)
-AM/FM with cassette deck comes standard
-AM/FM w/ CD player coms standard

Home/Personal Audio Media
-Player pianos
-Cylinder phonographs
-78rpm records
-33rpm LPs
-Reel-to-reel tape players
-8-track decks
-Cassette tape players
-Walkman-style cassette players
-CD players
-Walkman-style CD players
-mp3 players

Automobile Restraint
-No seatbelts
-Optional after-market seatbelts
-Seatbelts standard with car
-Baby car seats
-Shoulder harnesses
-Toddler car seats
-Front airbags
-Side-impact airbags

Computer External Storage
-Punch cards
-Magnetic tape
-8”(?) floppies
-5” floppies
-Cassette drives
-3” double-density floppies
-3” high-density floppies
-Zip disks
-CD-R
-CD-RW
-USB flashdrives
-DVD-R
-DVD-RW
-Mini-hard drives

Home Lighting
-Incandescent bulbs
-Fluorescent lights
-''Energy-saving'' spiral fluorescent lights
-LED-cluster bulbs

Clothing Attachment
-Lace up with cord
-Frogs
-Hooks and eyes
-Buttons
-Zippers
-Snaps
-Velcro
-Future? -- electromagnetic pads? static-charge pads? gecko feet VanDerWal force pads?

Telephones
-Vertical, with separate earpiece on a cord
-Rotary dial
-Touch-tone pushbutton dial
-''Brick'' mobile phones
-Home answering machines
-Home voicemail
-Medium-sized mobile phones
-Medium-sized mobile phones with text messaging
-Teeny mobile phones
-Teeny mobile phones with mp3 players and digital cameras

Capturing Movies
-Big film (35mm?)
-8mm home movies
-Video cameras
-Digital video cameras
-Digital cameras and cell phones that capture video


Feel free to add your own suggestions. :)


--TG

Another Aussie-ism: plates

Gye Greene and The Lady are at work. I just checked the mailbox, and there was an invitation to the local Neighborhood Watch group.

When this group was first formed -- after a series of residential burglaries in the area -- the invitation said to ''please bring a plate.'' GG and myself both thought that asking people to bring their own plate was remarkably environmental -- although we wondered why bringing one's own cup was not also specified.

However, The Lady informed us that ''bring a plate'' actually means to bring some food!!! -- specifically, a plate -- with food on it! Ahhh...

Upon some thought, this is not terribly different from the U.S. expression to ''bring a dish'' or ''bring a hot dish''. Yet, somehow I did not make the connection.

We did not end up attending -- but if we had, it might have been embarassing! (Although we could have made the excuse that we are but Americans.)


What made me think of this is that today's invitation specifies ''Please bring a plate of food for supper.''

Much clearer. :)


--TG

New posts retroactively added

Please note that I have, en masse, added posts dating back to 30 October.

At the request of Gye Greene and his paranoia(?), I had agreed to postpone posting in my blog any entries which related to his absence.

--TG

Today I read in Old Roommate's blog about the loss of one of his pets. That is sad -- although to be truthful, I never bonded with his birds: There was nothing wrong with them, but I simply don't find pet birds to be terribly interactive. Bird-lovers may disagree, so perhaps it is just me.

On the other hand, I was pleased that Bear, the dog, is still doing well. Gye Greene and I roomed with Old Roommate for a number of years, and Bear both pre- and post-dates our co-occupancy with Old Roommate.

Bear is without a doubt the kindest, sweetest dog in the whole world. And that includes Ralphie. When Ralphie has stolen something he is not supposed to have -- perhaps a sock from the laundry hamper -- he will grumble and growl a bit as you try to confiscate it. I have never known Bear to growl, or nip, or any-such. If anything, he tends towards the passive, subordinate side.

Bear's neediness -- most dogs are needy; Bear more-so -- leads to some amusing chracteristics . When we roomed with Old Roommate and sat around the kitchen table reading the newspaper, Bear would sit on the floor next to your chair, place one paw on your knee and look up at you as if to sympathetically say ''I know how it is...'' If he didn't get patted, then after a few attempts at empathy he would walk under the table and lie down on your feet (particularly in the winter).

A sweet dog.

Also a bit of an older dog. He was ''used'' when Old Roomate picked him up -- from an animal shelter, I believe -- and this was prior to his first marriage. Thus, I believe he was acquired around 1993. If so, that would make him around thirteen years old -- which is rather senior for a dog.


Again: A sweet dog. It would be nice to get a dog like him here in Brisbane, but I am not sure his breed -- American Eskimo (related to Samoyeds) -- is easily available here.


--TG

Happy Birthday to Gye Greene!!!

Happy Birthday to Gye Greene!!!

I bought him a CD of Laptop, one of his favorite bands.


--TG