Comments on: Open thread 2/13/2025

By: charles

charles — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 19:16:13 +0000

While us “old” folks can laugh at “kids these days” I do remember when I was growing up my grandmother asking me (already knowing the answer) “you don’t know how to button a shoe, do you?”

Ha! I didn’t even know that buttoning a shoe was a thing!

By: Philip Sells

Philip Sells — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 06:23:31 +0000

At my church, we’ve been renovating the hall. In one old storage room, we had a working rotary phone on the wall. It could receive calls, but not call out (at least I never bothered to try). Now that that room has been demolished, though, I notice the phone was removed. I hope we still have it somewhere.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 05:11:05 +0000

I recall talking to the operator to connect. One time the operator broke into a conversation and told us boys that we had talked long enough. Rotary phones were introduced in May, 1955.

By: Molly Brown

Molly Brown — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 05:09:14 +0000

A decade or so back I paid a visit to the parents of a friend, bringing my seventeen year old daughter along to meet them. They had a shelf in their living room full of collectibles, one of which was a small ‘sample’ manual typewriter. My daughter stared at it in wonderment and and finally, in a voice full of awe, asked; ‘Is that a.. a… typewriter? I always wondered what they looked like!’

By: LP

LP — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:21:57 +0000

When rotary phones gave way to push button phones and all of our friends bought the new push button models, we kept our working rotary phone as long as we could because it worked just fine, so why would we replace it? When our kids friends came over and asked to use the phone we had to show them how. We thought that was hilarious. The funny thing is, it all seems very recent!

By: Bob Wilson

Bob Wilson — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 23:17:03 +0000

For those of you making political donations, here are 10 seats in the House of Representative won by Republicans by narrow margins in 2024.

1. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa’s 1st District)
• Margin: ~0.19% (799 votes)
• Defeated Democrat Christina Bohannan in one of the closest races nationwide.
2. Gabe Evans (Colorado’s 8th District)
• Margin: ~1.2% (approx. 2,448 votes)
• Flipped the seat from Democrat Yadira Caraveo.
3. Republican Ryan Mackenzie (Pennsylvania’s 7th District)
• Margin: ~2% (approx. 4,062 votes)
• Defeated Democrat Susan Wild in a rematch.
4. Jen Kiggans (Virginia’s 2nd District)
• Margin: ~1.9%
• Held off Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal.
5. Mike Lawler (New York’s 17th District)
• Margin: ~3-4%
• Defeated Democrat Mondaire Jones in a rematch.
6. Anthony D’Esposito (New York’s 4th District)
• Margin: ~4-5%
• Held the seat against Democrat Laura Gillen.
7. Scott Perry (Pennsylvania’s 10th District)
• Margin: ~4.1%
• Defeated Democrat Janelle Stelson.
8. Ryan Zinke (Montana’s 1st District)
• Margin: ~6-7%
• Held against Democrat Monica Tranel.
9. Juan Ciscomani (Arizona’s 6th District)
• Margin: ~5-6%
• Held in a competitive district.
10. Young Kim (California’s 40th District)
• Margin: ~5-8% (close but held)
• Defeated Democrat Derek Tran in a Biden-won district.

By: David Foster

David Foster — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:51:20 +0000

Natalie Bingham Hoover, a flight instructor and an FAA designated examiner, writing in AOPA Pilot magazine:

“My son got a record player for his ninth birthday. His grandparents were hoping to help him connect with some music history and the culture of their own growing-up years. None of us knew how to use it, so we googled YouTube videos of the right way to put the needle down and how to align the cartridge. I apologize to you vinyl heads; the irony here is not lost on me.”

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:20:18 +0000

neo, Curt,

You can also buy a rotary cellular phone: https://www.digitaltrends.com/phones/this-rotary-cell-phone-actually-works-and-you-can-buy-it/

By: Barry Meislin

Barry Meislin — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 20:35:49 +0000

Rotary Club, TNG!
– – – – – – – – – – –
And for anyone still confused by what’s been happening in Venezuela…and what will soon be happening in Cuba…and Iran:

“The Left’s Long Game in Latin America”—
https://americanmind.org/salvo/the-lefts-long-game-in-latin-america/
H/T Powerline blog.

…In which Lula and Fidel are given a rather impressive cameo(!)…

By: IrishOtter49

IrishOtter49 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:51:46 +0000

om:

“Come by” (right/clockwise)

“Away to me” (left/counter-clockwise)