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Old 03-28-2014, 04:03 PM   #221
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I still have one, purchased ~1964.
Wow, that thing is as old as me. Got our kids some Duncan yo-yo's this past XMAS. Enjoyed teaching them how to "walk the dog"
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Old 03-28-2014, 04:22 PM   #222
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Wow, that thing is as old as me. Got our kids some Duncan yo-yo's this past XMAS. Enjoyed teaching them how to "walk the dog"
This part will make you ill. I paid a total of $1.04 for it. Still remember because I raided the piggy bank for some pennies to make the purchase.

I just had to look it up. $5.65 now on Amazon. Amazon.com: Duncan Yo-Yo Imperial (Assorted Colors): Toys & Games
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Old 03-28-2014, 05:32 PM   #223
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Old 03-28-2014, 07:09 PM   #224
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This part will make you ill. I paid a total of $1.04 for it. Still remember because I raided the piggy bank for some pennies to make the purchase.

I just had to look it up. $5.65 now on Amazon. Amazon.com: Duncan Yo-Yo Imperial (Assorted Colors): Toys & Games
Same here....not as old as 1964, but she's a beaut. Best memory? hearing the joyous refrain...... "TAKE THAT $%$@#% THING OUTSIDE!
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Old 03-28-2014, 08:07 PM   #225
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Love the memories of the Duncan YoYo...

I943 in Pawtucket... At age 7, I could take the overhead Electric Powered city bus from Fairlawn to the downtown YMCA ... Junior leadership marching program. After the class, to Main Street where the five and dime stores were... F.W. Woolworth, W.T Grant, and Najarians. War years, and basically before the age of plastic. Two weeks before the event, notices in the store window..

Duncan Yoyo Demonstration... Here: on Saturday the 14th...10 AM to 2 PM...

So Half of the towns kids were there to watch "The Filipinos"... two teen age kids who for us were the Justin Bieber of the day... They were employed by Duncan to give shows... Amazing... they did YoYo tricks that were (to us) the equivalent of Magic... Not just Walk the dog or Rock the baby, or Around the world, but tricks like Rockets away... free flying yoyo's 15 feet in the air, and ending up in "The Filipino's" back pocket. (We had no idea what Filipinos were)...
Stars in our eyes, we would rush to buy a Yoyo in the store.

Now, one small point here... The Duncan motto was "It's a Duncan"... Most of my friends could only hope, some day to own a Duncan. I think they were a whole Dollar, and who could afford a dollar?... The "Duncan" was like the Red Ryder BB gun in "A Christmas Story"... The Duncan was polished wood, smooth, and... IT COULD SLEEP. Gordon Annon had one, and lorded it over us poorer kids. We had the W.T. Grant special for $.25... it was rough wood, and the string was fixed, so it could not sleep. (sigh)

After the show, over to Planters Peanuts... where "Peanut Man" was out front, giving away tiny bags of peanuts. The game was to go back several times to get additional free bags. Didn't work... Mr. Peanut was adept at remembering faces.

Back to the bus to go home... we were pretty smart, even at that age. When we got on to go down town, we'd buy a transfer... regular fare $.05, transfer $.02. The transfer was supposed to be used to continue the ride on a connecting bus, but we'd cheat and save $.03... using it on the trip back home. Three cents would buy one Double Bubble gum and 2 three foot licorice whips at Mr. Lee's store.

Sheesh.. thanks for the memories... Maybe some one can bring up something to do with the War... so I can recall the time that Kate Smith sang God Bless America at the War Bond Drive, at the end of our street.

Now, let's see, what was the subject?
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Old 03-28-2014, 08:58 PM   #226
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Old 03-28-2014, 09:03 PM   #227
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Love the memories of the Duncan YoYo...

...

Now, one small point here... The Duncan motto was "It's a Duncan"... Most of my friends could only hope, some day to own a Duncan. I think they were a whole Dollar, and who could afford a dollar?... The "Duncan" was like the Red Ryder BB gun in "A Christmas Story"... The Duncan was polished wood, smooth, and... IT COULD SLEEP. Gordon Annon had one, and lorded it over us poorer kids. We had the W.T. Grant special for $.25... it was rough wood, and the string was fixed, so it could not sleep. (sigh)

...
Ahhh, you filled in some missing blanks for me.

So more recently, my son got into yo-yo's in his early teens. I don't recall that he ever got very good at it, but he like collecting them, and relatives were pleased because it was an easy casual birthday/holiday gift to add a few yo-you's to his collection - he had a little suitcase for them that doubled as a display case.

When you mentioned "It's a Duncan", I recall that (barely), but what else was there? I don't recall a "W.T. Grant special". Duncan must have taken over by the late 50's?

And the whole 'sleep' thing - that might have been one of my early "how does that work" type questions. So the string was loose on a smooth shaft so it just spun when it hit the bottom. But if you wound the loop of string to just the right tightness (and it was a loop of string, the other yo-o's were a single string), a tug would cause it to grip enough to catch and it would then climb back. Clever stuff!

I wonder what the total damage has been over the years to windows, vases, TV screens, mirrors, etc from those Duncan's? At least they were too big to 'put your eye out'!


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Old 03-29-2014, 09:00 AM   #228
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I wonder what the total damage has been over the years to windows, vases, TV screens, mirrors, etc from those Duncan's? At least they were too big to 'put your eye out'!


-ERD50
Funny you mention that. I never did, but one of my friends did break a window in the house. And he forever after heard:

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"TAKE THAT $%$@#% THING OUTSIDE!
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Old 03-29-2014, 10:05 AM   #229
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Milwaukee power tools---durable
Porter Cable power tools---refined accuracy
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Micheline Xice 3 snow tires--Gives confidence driving on ice/snow
Mercruiser Bravo 3 Drive--amazing holding power in the water
Hobie kayak with Mirage drive--innovative thinking
Lazyboy recliners--aaaahhhh
Cummins Diesel in a dodge truck--will outlive me
2014 Ford Escape----wow, average car technology has advanced!
IPad----Thank you apple
Swifter----made cleaning smooth floors a snap
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Old 03-29-2014, 11:09 AM   #230
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Wild salmon patties by Trident

I saw this at Costco, and I looked up the ratings and couldn't believe how much people like them, so I bought them, and WOW. I LOVED THEM!!

Costco - Trident Seafoods® Wild Alaskan Salmon Burgers customer reviews - product reviews - read top consumer ratings

Best salmon burgers I've eaten by a HUGE margin. And the price at Costo on this is unbeatable.
They had these on sample at my Costco on Thursday. Tasty, but we are spoiled by the in-store made salmon burgers at our HEB - chopped salmon with jalapeño, onion, cheese, and I'm not sure what else but they are yummy.
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Old 03-29-2014, 11:15 AM   #231
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I am always happy with my purchases at Costco. I have been shopping there for 20 years and never had to return anything.
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Old 04-21-2014, 06:47 PM   #232
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I had 2 different electronic meat thermometers. I bought them for around $20-25 each at places like Walmart. After having them for a while, I noticed that when I used them to check my steaks, one tended to result in overdone meat, while the other was the reverse. So, one day I checked them side-by-side in a pot of water being heated, along with an engineering thermometer using a standard thermocouple. The result: the 2 el-cheapo thermometers differed by at least 5F at the range of 120F-140F (one high, one low relative to the engineering thermocouple), and both were badly off at higher temperatures like 160F.

Recently, a visiting friend touted about his thermometer that he said was worth every penny, and it cost quite a few pennies. It's the "Thermapen". At $99, it was a bit rich for me and I would not think of spending that much. It came as a surprise to me to receive it as a gift from my friend a few days later.

The pointed tip of this thermometer penetrates the meat easily, and its small thermal mass means very fast temperature taking: a mere 2 seconds to reach equilibrium with the meat temperature. It's also calibrated to less than 1F error from the range of -58F to 400F; it's got to be for that price!

I used it to grill some meat last weekend, and darn, the thing was so nice to use. If you are a serious cook, it's highly recommended. For years, I did not know what I was missing. Here's how fast it is: when I poke the meat, the temperature reading jumps up as the probe tip contacts the outside layer of the meat, then drops down as it penetrates deeper.
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Old 04-21-2014, 08:03 PM   #233
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...
Recently, a visiting friend touted about his thermometer that he said was worth every penny, and it cost quite a few pennies. It's the "Thermapen". At $99, it was a bit rich for me and I would not think of spending that much. It came as a surprise to me to receive it as a gift from my friend a few days later.

The pointed tip of this thermometer penetrates the meat easily, and its small thermal mass means very fast temperature taking: a mere 2 seconds to reach equilibrium with the meat temperature. ...
Yes, the Thermapen has quite a following in the beer home-brewing community. Mostly used to hit mash temperatures, in the range of ~ 140F to ~ 158F and fastidious brewers may want to be within ~ 1F of target for repeat-ability.

BTW, I can't recall if I read this, or just mentally reverse-engineered this, but I think the reason it is so fast, is that they know the time-constant of the design, and do some predicting. Let's say the TC is one second, so if the temperature changed X in one second, they display Tinit+1/((0.632)*Tdelta). And then recalculate as it settles. They probable undershoot a bit so you don't see the reading fluctuate high and low, but appears to quickly approach the final temperature.

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Old 04-21-2014, 08:12 PM   #234
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Yes, they can put in a "lead" in software to compensate for the "lag" in hardware, meaning the probe tip. Still, the tiny tip gives it a huge advantage.

I still do not know how other makers can't find a way to beat its price of $99. With today's electronics being so cheap, what's the reason for its relatively high price? For comparison, a 2TB hard disk can be bought for $80, and that requires precise and fine-tuned mechanical parts and sophisticated electronics.


PS. Amazon now shows this at $199! Crazy!

PPS. The above might be an error on Amazon's part. By the way, Thermoworks, the maker of the above, also has other thermometers at more reasonable prices of $29 and $19. I think I will get one of the latter for the 2nd home. They are a bit slower (5 sec vs. 2 sec), and calibrated within a smaller range - top temp of 212F instead of 400F but that's more than enough for meat temperature.
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Old 04-21-2014, 09:15 PM   #235
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Yes, they can put in a "lead" in software to compensate for the "lag" in hardware, meaning the probe tip. Still, the tiny tip gives it a huge advantage.

I still do not know how other makers can't find a way to beat its price of $99. With today's electronics being so cheap, what's the reason for its relatively high price? For comparison, a 2TB hard disk can be bought for $80, and that requires precise and fine-tuned mechanical parts and sophisticated electronics.


PS. Amazon now shows this at $199! Crazy!

PPS. The above might be an error on Amazon's part. By the way, Thermoworks, the maker of the above, also has other thermometers at more reasonable prices of $29 and $19. I think I will get one of the latter for the 2nd home. They are a bit slower (5 sec vs. 2 sec), and calibrated within a smaller range - top temp of 212F instead of 400F but that's more than enough for meat temperature.
Agreed, it's hard to understand the price delta. I've got a $15 one that works well, (this one) but no stated accuracy. But as you say, accuracy is cheap these days.

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Old 04-21-2014, 09:43 PM   #236
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By the way, here's another advantage of the skinny probe tip of the Thermaworks thermometers, the expensive Thermapen as well as the $19 one. I poked the steak several times and in different spots, and at no time did the juice ooze out of the meat as happened with my older thermometer. And I could poke the meat without having to hold it steady with the tongs, like I had to do with the gargantuan probe of my earlier inaccurate meter, which dug holes in the steak.
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Old 04-22-2014, 08:10 AM   #237
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Weathertech floor mats. I have these in my truck and these mats are indestructible.
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Old 04-22-2014, 08:33 AM   #238
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While the fast sensing of Thermaworks meat thermometer sounds good, what advantage does that have over a thermometer with a wired probe that I can just leave in the meat on the grill or in the oven and have an alarm alert me when it is approaching the desired temperature?
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Old 04-22-2014, 08:49 AM   #239
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Weathertech floor mats. I have these in my truck and these mats are indestructible.
+1 -- they also fit perfectly, as each mat is designed for an individual vehicle.
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Old 04-22-2014, 09:08 AM   #240
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Addi Turbo circular knitting needles. If you knit, you know.

Induction cooktops. They have the touch of gas, but are easier to clean than either gas or radiant electric plus they are substantially more energy efficient.

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