I always hated when the apple cobbler or other sugary dessert bled over from its section of the tray into the main course of salisbury steak and mashed potatoes or whatever. Of course, thinking back now -- the mashed potatoes always tasted awful like cardboard, so perhaps I shouldn't have cared that the stuff was getting all mixed :-)
We did have video tape recorders, though. Setting up and running them for classes was part of my college work-study job around 1971-72. The units I operated were made by Ampex and were about the size of a suitcase. They used a wide tape which had to be threaded onto the take-up reel, similar to an audio reel-to-reel tape recorder. The tape head had to be cleaned with alcohol between each use, and there was a tracking control which you often adjusted to avoid getting a stripe across the picture.
Not only that, but there were definitely VCRs in 1975. In particular, the Sony U-Matic was released in 1971, and Betamax dates to 1975 (with a November release in the US). Of course, the early VCRs were either used in educational or industrial environments, or else were toys for the rich.
There are plenty of other nits to pick with this article, as well. Pong wasn't the only video game, even if it was by far the most common (and yes, pinball dominated the arcades then). Dynamic range compression on LPs was certainly a thing, but producers didn't go overboard with it back then the way they do now.
Still, it's funny how some things never change (like media fearmongering).
I think they're using DVD and VCR as references to the media and not the machines, I know it's not correct language but have often heard people in the UK say "I have it on VCR" when they mean they have a video cassette tape.
Also they're clearly saying "no" in the context of a seven year old's view of domestic life. Obviously TV stations had recording equipment.
Some years ago before I retired, I ventured into my local senior center to get a free flu shot, and nearly got sucked into a big square dance while trying to cross the room (it was mostly women and I guess they needed more men for partners). A functioning light sabre would have come in mighty handy that day!
Doesn't really bother me. Every year during Lent I hear, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." So I figure my house and I are slowly fulfilling biblical prophecy.
When I worked in Pittsburgh and Johnstown, I had coworkers from the Latrobe area, and since I'm from east of the Alleghenies (where lah-TROBE tends to be popular) it always took some conscious effort on my part to say LAY-trobe, which I understood to be correct :-)
Due to ever increasing development, squirrels can no longer travel the nation by jumping between successive trees as their ancestors once did. Today it involves much more work and danger: crawling down, scampering across open ground, climbing back up, running the wires, and dealing with those high voltage pole pigs. Actually, squirrels have been mad as hell at us for many years now. Thus far they haven't overtaken us because (a) we've appeased them somewhat by tossing them peanuts and filling bird feeders with sunflower seed, and (b) they haven't quite mastered the "opposable thumb" thing just yet. But they are known for adaptability and persistence, and there are reports they are making major advances with (b) by secretly observing our finesse at eating chicken wings at outdoor picnics and festivals. Really, it's only a matter of who gets there first: squirrels and thumbs, dogs and doorknobs, cows and upright walking, or cats figuring out the internet backbone. We'll soon be paying homage to our new overlords, and they won't even be from an alien planet.
I remember original RPG as being the electronic descendant of the old IBM unit record machines, with their plug boards and mechanical processing cycles. That heritage likely predates even COBOL. IBM added many extensions over the years, and at one of my mainframe workplaces we even did online CICS programming with RPG (not fun at all!).
Also, much of the actual time-sharing control on those GE's was handled by a separate communications processor (e.g. Datanet-30) with its own memory space and registers.
I'm single and 63, and that often happens to me, too. You just have to watch they don't try to stick you into an undesirable small table next to the kitchen door, etc. I find this occurs most often with younger, less experienced hosts, and I simply won't put up with it. The instant I realize I'm being guided to a poor table or a noisy area, I quickly look around and request another one of my own choosing.
I would highly recommend bar seating. So long as you're not at an hour where the drinking crowd starts to overtake the dining crowd, it's usually quick to find a space.
