Category: 1970s

The Atari VCS’s Best Pitch

The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, is the first successful video game console to use plug-in cartridges instead of having one or more games built in.

Peter Edward “Pete” Rose, Sr. (born April 14, 1941, in Cincinnati, Ohio), nicknamed Charlie Hustle, is a former player and manager in Major League Baseball. Rose played from 1963 to 1986, best known for his many years with the Cincinnati Reds. Rose, a switch hitter, is the all-time major-league leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at bats (14,053), and outs (10328).

Jesse Donald Knotts (July 21, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show (a role which earned him five Emmy Awards), and as landlord Ralph Furley on the television sitcom Three’s Company.

Hungarian Sausage Fest

A sausage consists of ground meat, animal fat, herbs and spices, and sometimes other ingredients, usually packed in a casing (historically the intestines of the animal, though now generally synthetic), and sometimes preserved in some way, often by curing or smoking. Sausage making is a very old food preservation technique.

Kolbász is the Hungarian word for sausage and generally refers to a type consisting of: ground pork, salt, garlic, black pepper, and paprika. Kolbász may be served fresh or smoked; “hot” (for varying degree) or “mild”.

Overweight? Try the Ayds Reducing Plan

Ayds was an appetite-suppressant candy which enjoyed strong sales in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was available in chocolate, chocolate mint, butterscotch or caramel flavors, and later a peanut butter flavor was introduced. The original packaging used the phrase “Ayds Reducing Plan vitamin and mineral Candy”; a later version used the phrase “appetite suppressant candy”. The active ingredient in the candy was 5.5 mg benzocaine, presumably to reduce the sense of taste to reduce eating.

Benzocaine, sold under the brand name Orajel amongst others, is an ester local anesthetic commonly used as a topical pain reliever or in cough drops.

A homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling or pronunciation (or both) but have different meanings. Examples are stalk (which can mean either part of a plant or to follow (someone) around), and the trio of words to, too and two.

Let Go with an L&M

Created by the company Liggett & Myers, L&M is a brand of cigarettes produced by Philip Morris Companies Inc., now known as Altria Group. They aren’t very common in the continental US, but are sold almost everywhere in Puerto Rico, Israel and Egypt. They are also widely available in Europe.

Lung cancer is the malignant transformation and expansion of lung tissue, and is the most lethal of all cancers worldwide, responsible for 1.2 million deaths annually. It is caused predominantly by cigarette smoking, and predominantly affected men, but with increased smoking among women, it is now the leading cause of death due to cancer in women. However, some people who have never smoked still get lung cancer.

Skateboarding Kool-Aid

Kool-Aid was invented by a Gerard and Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack. To reduce shipping costs, in 1927, Perkins discovered a way to remove the liquid from Fruit Smack, leaving only a powder. This powder was named Kool-Ade (and a few years later, Kool-Aid due to a change in government regulations regarding the need for fruit juice in products using the term “Ade”). Perkins moved his production to Chicago in 1931 and Kool-Aid was sold to General Foods in 1953.

Skateboarding is the act of riding on or performing tricks with a skateboard. A person who skateboards is referred to as a skateboarder or skater.

Skateboarding is a relatively modern sport. It originated as “sidewalk surfing” in the United States particularly California in the 1950s. A key skateboarding trick, the ollie, was only developed in the late 1970s.