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Terms Which Have Disappeared

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17,190
Location
New York City
Who among us has ever actually met a dog named "Fido" or "Rover?"

At least in NYC, the dogs now have very "important" sounding names - "Hudson," "Bentley" and "Beethoven" are quite common. And, nope, never met a "Fido" or "Rover."

There's a "Beethoven" in our building and, while I have no idea about his composition skills, I do know the dog can poop up a storm. :)
 

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One of the Regulars
Messages
126
Location
California
At least in NYC, the dogs now have very "important" sounding names - "Hudson," "Bentley" and "Beethoven" are quite common. And, nope, never met a "Fido" or "Rover."

There's a "Beethoven" in our building and, while I have no idea about his composition skills, I do know the dog can poop up a storm. :)

Beethoven probably falls more along the lines of Scooby and Lassie due to the “popularity” of the movie franchise about the Saint Bernard.
 
Messages
17,190
Location
New York City
Beethoven probably falls more along the lines of Scooby and Lassie due to the “popularity” of the movie franchise about the Saint Bernard.

Had to Google it - somehow that franchise never hit my radar. I'm sure you are right about that being the source of the name for so many dogs in this city.
 
Messages
12,005
Location
Southern California
Who among us has ever actually met a dog named "Fido" or "Rover?"
*sigh*raises hand* I have. I forget the exact circumstances, but a whole lot of years ago my wife and I attended a birthday party for someone at a local park, and as we were being introduced to the people we didn't know one couple who had brought their dog told us his name was Rover. When I asked, "Seriously?" they sheepishly replied, "Yeah, that's what we get for letting the kids name the dog."

Beethoven probably falls more along the lines of Scooby and Lassie due to the “popularity” of the movie franchise about the Saint Bernard.
One of the families up the street from us has a dog named Marley, after the 2008 movie Marley & Me; another case of letting the kids name the dog. Unlike the dog in the movie, theirs is an obnoxious Chihuahua that barks like an Ewok. :rolleyes:
 

vitanola

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,254
Location
Gopher Prairie, MI
I have a restored RCA console from 1938 in my office that I listen to for a couple of hours every morning, and it uses a metal 6F6 audio final -- that tube burns out every six months and has to be replaced. It's turned into a bit of an experiment -- I've tried old stock RCA new-in-box tubes with manufacturing codes dating from the late thirties to the mid-seventies, I've tried military surplus WW2 new in box tubes, and I've tried RCA 1621 tubes -- the industrial high-performance version of the 6F6. All of them have failed within six months.

I think some of this may be poor circuit design in the radio -- they're driving the speaker with a single output tube rather than using twin tubes in push-pull, and it by design runs hotter than it should. But the metal tubes, because they dissipate heat so poorly, seem like they were designed to fail sooner than later.

RCA pushed these tubes hard during the late thirties as the next big thing in radio, with a notable lack of success in doing so. I suspect their reputation for poor durability was established early on, but they had invested so much on development and advertising that they had to push forward even though the product was inferior to glass tubes. I have an RCA table model from a couple years earlier in my bedroom, using a very similar circuit except with a smaller speaker and a type 42 output tube -- which is basically an earlier, glass-envelope, six-pin version of the 6F6. I listen to this set for a couple of hours every night, and the output tube is the same one that was in it when I bought the radio thirty-three years ago.

Hmm.

I still have my grandparents' set, a cheap six tube Grunow 1936 model console. This set used the first series of metal tubes, and after regular use from its purchase in August of 1935 until my grandmother broke up housekeeping in 1972 it retained three original (stamped, not painted trademarks) tubes when I first restored it in 1983, the 6K7, the 6H6, and the 6F5. The 6A8 had been replaced early, and the 6F6 was a wartime M-R unit. The 5Z4 rectifier had been replaced with an M-R 5Y3G. This set got a great deal of life out of its 6F6 because it used a plate voltage (240 with 117v input) well within the tube's limits. The lower tube count RCA sets of the period were notorious for pushing their output tubes to the limit. I had one set which put 345 volts on the plate of its 6F6 with 120 at the light socket. With these sets I usually substitute a 6V6, which saves a little heater current and otherwise works as a drop-in substitute. In most cases the power transformer runs a little cooler, the set handles volume peaks a bit better, and the tube loafs along well under its design ratings.
 
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Messages
12,005
Location
Southern California
Three Stooges - 1936 - Whoops I’m An Indian

Check it at 11 minutes. Kids' TV today is pretty lame by comparison. Why, when I was a boy ...
Sadly, "the kids" would probably see it the other way 'round. They've been bombarded with constant sensory overload from the moment their lives started through numerous electronic devices, and many of them haven't developed the patience required to watch a story unfold if it takes longer than 60 seconds. :rolleyes:
 

KILO NOVEMBER

One Too Many
Messages
1,068
Location
Hurricane Coast Florida
Sadly, "the kids" would probably see it the other way 'round. They've been bombarded with constant sensory overload from the moment their lives started through numerous electronic devices, and many of them haven't developed the patience required to watch a story unfold if it takes longer than 60 seconds. :rolleyes:
I have no children (and by extension, no grandchildren) but where I was watching Popeye and The Three Stooges, I get the impression that what kids see today is along the lines of "My Little Pony". And that is pretty lame compared to The Flintstones, which was inspired by The Honeymooners, another one I watched as a boy. And what today is as sophisticated as Rocky and Bullwinkle?
 
Messages
12,005
Location
Southern California
...And what today is as sophisticated as Rocky and Bullwinkle?
Many years ago a friend and I visited the Dudley Do-Right Emporium on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. Owned and operated by Jay Ward whose studio (Jay Ward Productions) produced Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, George of the Jungle, and other animated shows for television, one of his daughters was working there that day. Naturally, the three of us engaged in conversation about the shows and some of our favorite moments, and she told us that the modus operandi at the studio was very simple--if the majority of writers and animators thought a visual or verbal joke was funny, it stayed in the cartoon. So they essentially produced cartoons that they thought were funny, and if anyone else thought they were funny, so much the better. Fortunately for them a lot of people shared and/or appreciated their sense of humor, and they found an audience.
 
At least in NYC, the dogs now have very "important" sounding names - "Hudson," "Bentley" and "Beethoven" are quite common. And, nope, never met a "Fido" or "Rover."

There's a "Beethoven" in our building and, while I have no idea about his composition skills, I do know the dog can poop up a storm. :)


I agree "Hudson" is a very important sounding name. Regal even.

I named my male dog "Wrangler", after former Astros pitcher and later manager Larry Dierker. The female is named "Sadie". Mrs. Hawk named her. I wanted "Daisy", but the missus said it sounded a little *too* hillbilly. The next dog might be a "Casey", just because that's a good baseball name.
 

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