On the left is a meme that has been circulating since at least 2020, possibly longer. It’s not really a plate but is meant to be an appetizer serving tray. On the right is literally my Christmas dinner from earlier this week. There were enough of these trays that every family member could have done the same but a few people, such as our daughter, chose not to. I realize the ham extends beyond its borders but I initially folded it in half only to have it spring back open. Still, what a remarkable time to be alive. In unrelated news I have gained 8 lbs just in the month of December. I hate vacation. Don’t hear me wrong, I love Christmas and all Christmas things, I just hate vacation. And I have another full week of it to go. What do people do that don’t sit in their house and eat all day? On the days it doesn’t rain it’s cold outside; I’m not going out there.

What concerns me about this panel is the warning at the bottom to “shut off mains before adjusting switches.” I don’t know if this is in America or Great Britain but this panel controls the lights in a church somewhere. It was this comment that made me want to share this story:

I guess it helps to understand what three phase power is and to know that commercial buildings have it but I hope that’s enough information for everyone to appreciate the clever humor that is the comment. I don’t know if my long term memory works well enough to call this the comment of the year it’s got to be in my top five.

For a brief period of time Goldfish crackers were replaced by Chilean Sea Bass crackers… sort of. The sea bass were never available in stores, only online, and they completely sold out in a matter of days. The product was exactly the same as Goldfish in every way and the publicity stunt was to remind customers that these snacks are not just for kids.

The cigarette lighter was invented before friction start matches but not the disposable plastic kind shown in the meme. Take a look at this bad boy from 1823:

Döbereiner’s lamp, also called a “tinderbox,” was invented by a German chemist in 1823 and produced until 1880. In the jar a piece of zinc reacted with sulfuric acid to produce hydrogen gas. “When a valve is opened, a jet of hydrogen is released onto a platinum sponge. The sponge catalyzes a reaction with atmospheric oxygen, which heats the catalyst and ignites the hydrogen, producing a gentle flame.” So the cigarette lighter was in fact invented before matches. Not exactly.

There was a self-lighting match invented in Paris in 1805. But the process was complex and the final product was both somewhat expensive and dangerous. Friction matches that were relatively stable and did not require the mixing of liquid chemicals did not come to market until 1826 so technically, technically, the meme is true. We have to carefully define terms and names and the truth may still depend on your point of view.

Guinness created the book of records to help stop bar arguments, which is ironic because if people didn’t get drunk in bars there would not be bar arguments in the first place.

50th Anniversary of CBS in 1978. I was born in 1975 so I know some of these from syndicated reruns and some of them I have still never heard of. But if you’re bored over the weekend click the image to view full size and test your memory of has been TV actors of yesteryear.

I’ve been on walking paths that had high voltage lines overhead that I could hear humming. I think I might try this bridge once out of curiosity but I would be concerned about what the state limits are and how those were determined.

I am going to argue this would steer, although perhaps with some difficulty. I realize the boards are fixed in a straight line but the mass of the car is so much greater than that very light utility trailer that I believe the wheels of the trailer would just be drug sideways around a corner. I’ve seen 18 wheel trucks back themselves into a jackknife and just keep pushing as the rear wheels of the trailer hopped and stretched until a turn tighter than should have been possible could be made. I wouldn’t want to be right behind this but I wouldn’t mind watching from a safe distance… or maybe someone else’s dash cam.

Oh, you thought… you thought we were talking about someone else. That’s on you.