Today we have a very special treat for you’re here at Atomic Toasters, a Quixotic Quantum Quandary that is brought to you by commenter extraordinaire OA5599. He sent it in to the exclusive Q^3 tips line, which can be found most times at the end of these Quandary posts. Mr. 5599 was kind enough to send me the very pictures that you see here, unburdened by the correct answer. After stewing over them for an excessive amount of time, I decided to post them as is, without knowing the truth. This way we can all discover the answer together!
Some of you may have grown up in one town your whole life, but then I would imagine that there are others out there who have had quite a few changes of scenery in their lives. When you get to a new place, and the inevitable question comes up, how does one decide exactly where to claim? Myself, I usually claim the state I grew up in, because it is Texas, and Texas is ridiculously awesome. I am however, one of those ‘I wasn’t born here, but I got here as fast as I could’ type of fellows. Or got there I guess, since now I am displaced.
But the real question isn’t where exactly to claim, it is how much detail to offer up. It is always interesting to see how many ‘But where in…’ questions that you get. Usually I get at least a question of where in Texas, and I throw out the nearest big city to the Podunk town where I went to high school. Then, probably because that city is Ft. Worth, and is a lynchpin of the D/FW Metroplex, I will often get people who know of at least one suburb around there, and want to know where, exactly. So I tell them, and invariably it draws blank stares. The funny part to me is when people are also from that area and yet have no idea. Does anyone else ever have the problem of living in or being from a mystery hamlet?
As always, if any of you out there in internet-land have some mysterious morsels that you would like to see sent up Quandary style, please send some photos my way! Just email HycoSpeed@gmail.com and throw Q³ in the subject line so I’ll see it.
This is the wall phone from the " Original Walgreen Drug Store" in Abilene Texas.Used to be on the East wall,near the door.
You're on the right path, but the technology is a bit more specific than that.
http://www.derekchristensen.com/the-abilene-parad…
Ah,the old "Abilene Paradox",that clears up a few things.
You had the first and closest answer, so I'm declaring you the winner.
It's a circa 1905 pay phone.
<img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/iciijl.jpg" width=500>
Larger image here: <a href="http://i48.tinypic.com/iciijl.jpg” target=”_blank”>http://i48.tinypic.com/iciijl.jpg
You got this from OA5599?
<img src="http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/o491/dmilligan666/Itsatrap.jpg" width="300" border="2" style="border:2px solid black;" alt=" " />
I'm with you on the mystery suburb thing. I can name all the Boston suburbs that surrounded my town and people will know every one of them (mostly from high-school history); when I say, "Right in between all those." I get the blank stare.
Oh, and…
[youtube MA5oz8b3UJM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA5oz8b3UJM youtube]
Looks like the professors lab…
Bah! The damned school lawyers made me get rid of anything made of wood that was larger than a pencil in the labs, whining about the number of fires, wooden shrapnel and liability and crap like that. Bloody philistine bean counters! They'd sell their shriveled souls if they still had them.
There are days I miss the 80s. Then there is times I watch old early 80s videos like this and realize I'm not missing much.
Okay, green thumb just for that, and in case you were still in danger of (as Pete Shelley himself put it) "surfing on a wave of nostalgia for an age yet to come"; here's a bunch of third-wave rockabilly phony Teddy Boys covering glam era Bowie, in low res.
[youtube nd_OyBFmT7I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd_OyBFmT7I youtube]