Remember The Days Of 56k Modems?

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   http://lazylaces.com/56Kmodem/
   
  Ahhh...the 56k modem. Remember how we all thought that was the best and fastest way to get on the internet?
  
  When I first went online with my big bad Windows 98 (HA!) computer with 64 MB of RAM and only a 2 GB hard drive, I tried using those worthless "free" dial-up internet providers that were everywhere in the Roaring '90s when it seemed like you could pay ALL the bills AND provide free internet with banner ads. Unfortunately, they had a habit of cutting you off after an hour...then 30 minutes....then 15 minutes. Finally, I yelled uncle and signed up for actual internet service. (GOOD LUCK trying to call me then!)
  
  I think 56k still has it's place for non-computer junkie people who only use the internet to surf for something specific or use e-mail and nothing else. Or for the REALLY poor. It should always be there and really cheap if worse comes to worse.
  
  I learned how to tweak a 56k modem to run at it's peak. But it was still prone to cut-offs......
  
  I on the other hand am a power and speed FREAK, expecting nothing less than the FASTEST possible connection. I was a dedicated "netizen" and I wasn't changing for anyone.
  
  I used 56k until from 1998 to early 2001 when I moved up to broadband. I paid about $100 bucks a month for it then - a LOT less now (about $30 now), but when I first set it up and connected, I though I was in heaven.
  
  The only problem today is websites are a lot more complex and don't work too well with dial-up. An average home page in 1999 had only 50-200kb of data. Today, it's 1-3 MB or more. So load up times take a lot longer on 56k now. It took 15 minutes to download a 3 MB file in 2000 with dial-up. Today, it takes less than a nanosecond with broadband.
  
  Those were the daze......

Cup Noodles

There isn't a more perfect instant food in the world than Cup Noodles.

Formerly known in the USA as Cup O' Noodles, this tasty noodle soup has kept everyone from latch key kids to college students to bachelor guys from starving for nearly 40 years. As easy to make as tea and unlike it's pot made counterpart, Top Ramen. Cup Noodles requires only one utensil, a fork (and even that's solved by picking up plastic forks in the salad bar of the supermarket.) In Japan, plastic utensils are often provided

For me, somehow Cup Noodles even TASTE better than Top Ramen.

And speaking of taste, Cup Noodles around the world have some pretty exotic flavours with Singapore having the most variety, including Spicy Black Pepper, Chicken Satay. However, Germany has it's own flavours, such as Broccoli and even Mashed Potato. The Phillipines have Batchoy and Mexico has Tapatio (hot sauce) flavour. In Indonesia, they have a flavour called Tominapple. Not quite sure what that is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_Noodles

Bon Appetit!

Goldie Hawn's Lost Country Album

In 1972, Reprise Records released a country album from Goldie Hawn.

The album is country tinged folk pop (Buck Owen's band The Buckaroos play on a few tracks, rounded out by session musicians.)

Dawn's New Ragtime Follies (1973)

Perhaps one of the most surprising hit albums of the '70s, this album of ragtime themed music with Tony Orlando & Dawn came right after the smash success of "Tie A Yellow Ribbon (Around The Old Oak Tree)"

It's been said at first Bell Records (which would become Arista Records a year later) thought they were out of their minds when they heard the demos for this album. And at the cusp of the disco era, they probably WERE.

But they released it with little promotion at first and not only did the album go to #1, it also yielded 3 Top 10 singles. a variety TV show (which replaced Sonny & Cher in 1974 and lasted until 1976) and it's considered Tony Orlando & Dawn's most successful album.

Colonel Sanders' Tijuana Picnic

I didn't know where to categorize this. Under Food, Restaurants or Music. Well, it's a little of all of the above.

Could you think of two things that could be more further apart than Herb Alpert-like brass music and Kentucky Fried Chicken?

Before these unholy Taco Bell/KFC combo restaurants started popping up everywhere (do these corporations even know that when you're really in the mood for Original Recipe, the LAST thing you want to smell is greasy tacos and vice-versa?) and bizarre things like chipotle started showing up on KFC's menus, such a union meant automatic BANKRUPTCY to whoever was serving it. And rightly so. Leave the fried chicken and the faux Mexican food to the specialists. And keep them separate.

Of course some whiny corporate suck-up will say "But think about it; let's say mom and dad wanted KFC food and the kids wanted Taco Bell food. Wouldn't it be great if they could each have what they want under one roof?"

And then people wonder why kids are so spoiled today. Because when I was growing up, eating out was a TREAT. And a RARE treat at that. We NEVER argued or complained about where we were going to eat because ANYTHING was better than ANOTHER night of meatloaf.

I could sympathize with the Colonel when he said two years before his death in 1980 that he wished he never sold Kentucky Fried Chicken. I wish he hadn't either. You just don't know heartburn until you had just eaten strips of Extra Crispy and chipotle sauce in a gummy tortilla, no matter how much lettuce and cheddar cheese shreds they put in it.

But let's go back to the late '60s and this vinyl gem. I don't know how exactly it was distributed, but seeing as it was on Mark 56 Records (a company that specialized in producing custom albums for businesses to be sold cheaply or just given away as a loss leader for another product) it was probably given away with a bucket of chicken or sold for 98¢.

It's a generic album of trendy Tijuana Brass knockoffs (that sound was HUGE in the '60s) that corporate America was pushing on every supermarket sound system and FM radio station they could for middle class suburban moms of the late '60s who wanted to be hip, but didn't want anything to do with pot (and ended up alcoholic instead.)

I especially love the liner notes the Good Colonel wrote on the back of this album. Who would've known he was as much an expert on Latin-tinged pop jazz as he was pressure cooking chicken?

Actually, he wasn't. They were ghost-written. But he sure knew how to sell Kentucky Fried Chicken.....

Here's a sample: