More Balloonage

[DeaconKC]

 

[Pat Riot]

7 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

 

Dangit, I be plumb proud of you, Laddie, for stickin' through the whole episode to the closing commercial!  

 

But let's hope not... them "Space B'nockers" would prob'ly leave ya cross-eyed....   

Thanks but the ad was up front after a couple of minutes. 
I recall watching those and the stop action marionette ones in the 60’s AND I am pretty sure I had a set of those useless atrocious binoculars. It may have not been the same ones (Space Patrol) but close. The lenses were plastic and the string stretched out in less than a day. 
I was that kid that got all that stuff from ads only to find there are many adults that will screw a kid over to make a Buck. 
It helped build character and it unleashed the cynic in me at an early age. 

[Eyesa Horg]

Kinda like the x-ray glasses. 

[Pat Riot]

30 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

Kinda like the x-ray glasses. 

Yep 

 

The Magic 8 Ball was the final straw for me. I worked recalled hard selling candy bars for a school trip to Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh in 5th grade. I was the top seller at the school and I got to pick a gift from the very front of the school catalog only reserved for those of us with “talent, fortitude and vision” (or some such BS). Only myself and one other kid got to order from those 2 pages. The other kid was at another school. I was hot stuff for a day. 

I got my Magic 8 Ball in the mail. I ran outside on a pretty sunny day and sat on the wall next to our flower garden and asked the Magic 8 Ball a very important question. I have no idea what the question was but it was darned important to this 10 year old. 
Following the instructions I asked the question, turned the 8 Ball over and it revealed the answer that would change my world…Hmm, the Magic 8 Ball was stuck or something. It was displaying 2 answers that I couldn’t see very well. I turned it over, asked again, shook it up, turned it upside down and it said “Ask again later”. WHAT?! A non commital answer from a MAGIC 8 Ball? “What gypsy horse(crap) is this?” I asked. 
I then started looking very suspiciously at this 8 ball and its “magic” answers. I kept asking the same questions over and over and getting conflicting answers and getting more and more agitated over this thing. 
It dawned on me that I had been screwed again by faceless men in crappy little buildings in crappy cities. You know, the kind of guys that wore the same suit every day, had 3 shirts and lunched on balonie sammiches and RC cola for lunch every day. They wore preacher glasses, had oily hair and had bad breath and pimples. The kind of guys that got beat up a lot as kids and had miserable childhoods. They felt gratified screwing 10 years olds out of their time and money and they lived in crappy studio apartments with 3rd hand furniture. 
 

I violently disassembled that magic 8 ball the next day against a brick wall to see what made it work. I think the last question I asked it was “If I smash you against a brick wall will you blow apart?”

The answer was “Outlook Good”.

Finally! A correct answer!

[Lawdog Dago Dom]

I thought this was another "Ginger or Mary Ann" thread!

[Cypress Sun]

Two words...Sea Monkeys.

[Oak Ridge Regulator]

Seems like balloon killing is pretty expensive, I have seen night vision footage of an Apache helicopter taking out a bad guy with a rpg hiding beside a bush with a single round, ( I believe it was probably a 20 or 25 mm round ) it would seem to me that same Apache helicopter could easily destroy a balloons payload with one shot ( it’s not like it’s moving really fast ) and let the rest of the balloon drift back to china, seems a lot cheaper to do and we don’t have to clean up the balloons 

[Still hand Bill]

51 minutes ago, Oak Ridge Regulator said:

Seems like balloon killing is pretty expensive, I have seen night vision footage of an Apache helicopter taking out a bad guy with a rpg hiding beside a bush with a single round, ( I believe it was probably a 20 or 25 mm round ) it would seem to me that same Apache helicopter could easily destroy a balloons payload with one shot ( it’s not like it’s moving really fast ) and let the rest of the balloon drift back to china, seems a lot cheaper to do and we don’t have to clean up the balloons 

Balloon is probably too high for a helicopter to get to it.  I believe they can’t get much above 20k feet if even that high.  

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

2 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Yep 

 

The Magic 8 Ball was the final straw for me. I worked recalled hard selling candy bars for a school trip to Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh in 5th grade. I was the top seller at the school and I got to pick a gift from the very front of the school catalog only reserved for those of us with “talent, fortitude and vision” (or some such BS). Only myself and one other kid got to order from those 2 pages. The other kid was at another school. I was hot stuff for a day. 

I got my Magic 8 Ball in the mail. I ran outside on a pretty sunny day and sat on the wall next to our flower garden and asked the Magic 8 Ball a very important question. I have no idea what the question was but it was darned important to this 10 year old. 
Following the instructions I asked the question, turned the 8 Ball over and it revealed the answer that would change my world…Hmm, the Magic 8 Ball was stuck or something. It was displaying 2 answers that I couldn’t see very well. I turned it over, asked again, shook it up, turned it upside down and it said “Ask again later”. WHAT?! A non commital answer from a MAGIC 8 Ball? “What gypsy horse(crap) is this?” I asked. 
I then started looking very suspiciously at this 8 ball and its “magic” answers. I kept asking the same questions over and over and getting conflicting answers and getting more and more agitated over this thing. 
It dawned on me that I had been screwed again by faceless men in crappy little buildings in crappy cities. You know, the kind of guys that wore the same suit every day, had 3 shirts and lunched on balonie sammiches and RC cola for lunch every day. They wore preacher glasses, had oily hair and had bad breath and pimples. The kind of guys that got beat up a lot as kids and had miserable childhoods. They felt gratified screwing 10 years olds out of their time and money and they lived in crappy studio apartments with 3rd hand furniture. 
 

I violently disassembled that magic 8 ball the next day against a brick wall to see what made it work. I think the last question I asked it was “If I smash you against a brick wall will you blow apart?”

The answer was “Outlook Good”.

Finally! A correct answer!

 

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Anyone else watch this Gerry Anderson show? It was pretty lame, but what the hay, I watched it anyway. The car looked cool.

 

 

[Oak Ridge Regulator]

36 minutes ago, Still hand Bill said:

Balloon is probably too high for a helicopter to get to it.  I believe they can’t get much above 20k feet if even that high.  

Possibly I don’t know an Apaches specs, but I watched a A10 on the rang in Graf Germany destroy an APC in about 3 seconds or less and I know they can fly that high and that was done with a 30mm GAU8 and I bet it’s still a lot cheaper 

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

9 minutes ago, Oak Ridge Regulator said:

Possibly I don’t know an Apaches specs, but I watched a A10 on the rang in Graf Germany destroy an APC in about 3 seconds or less and I know they can fly that high and that was done with a 30mm GAU8 and I bet it’s still a lot cheaper 

There probably weren't any A-10s available and the balloon was supposedly at 40,000 ft which is right at the A-10 service ceiling. Still, I've often wondered why they used a missile since the F-22 has a 20 mm Vulcan cannon and 480 rounds.