The McCarty Metro - A Blast From The Past

.A BLAST FROM THE PAST

ED NOTE: Our Blast From The Past page contains memories from 5 years to 100 years ago. I encourage all suscribers to submit their memories, photos, and ideas to reply@mccartymetro.com to have them shared with our family.

MANNIX

CAST:

Joe Mannix: Mike Connors
Peggy Fair: Gail Fisher
Lt. Arthur Malcolm: Ward Wood
Lt. George Kramer: Larry Linville
Lt. Adam Tobias: Robert Reed
Lt. Daniel Ives: Jack Ging
Toby Fair: Mark Stewart
Lou Wickersham: Joseph Campanella

Mannix was a weekly telvision series which began its appearance on September 7, 1967 and remained at CBS until August 24, 1975 with 154 episodes being filmed. During the first season Joe Mannix, played by Mike Connors, worked as a detective for Intertect, a computerized private detective agency. Stories follow the format of Mannix being a loner who constantly goes against the rules and regulations of the detective organization. Lou Wickersham, his boss who believes in the computerized and scientific methods of solving cases, is against Joe's approach to solving cases. The second season Mannix has his own detective agency in the same building he lived. He hired secretary Peggy Fair, the wife of a cop friend of his who was killed in the line of duty. Lt. Adam Tobias of the Los Angeles police department became Mannix's friend and contact on the police force. The series dealt with many high-speed car chase scenes and fisticuffs as Mannix solves case after case each week.

METRO ARCHIVES - MARCH 2001

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Let's see how many of these things you remember from when the McCarty Metro was in its' first few years and how they differ from the past few years. Do you remember publishing the paper under the basement steps with carbon paper. Speaking of basements, the dark game and the flashlight game, and foot hockey were fun ways to get hurt. The smell the first time the oil burning furnace went on in the fall. Burning leaves... heck... burning trash too. Going to the drugstore to test vacuum tubes for the TV. Kool-Aid being the only drink for kids, other than milk and pop. Speaking of pop... one word TICO. The only question about buying tennis shoes was High top and Low top? Wearing leather shoes to school. Girls wearing dresses. The TV taking five minutes to warm up. Getting your haircut at the kitchen table. Mom always being there when you get home. Every dog anyone owned was a mutt... Speaking of mutts... REX. A 16 cent allowance would buy a sandwich bag full of candy. Getting a quarter under your pillow when you lost a tooth had you envisioning being rich if you pulled all your teeth out (Larry even did it). A 2 cent bottle deposit had you picking up the filthiest trash in the alleys. Going to the gas station and getting your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, free, every time. And you got trading stamps to boot! The cost of joining the Detroit parks softball league... 10 cents. When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box. When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him, or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed--and did! When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.

Ain't today just great????

KATHLENE'S BOOK CORNER

As a mother, I've read books and books about Child Discipline. I've heard recommendations from Dr. Laura to Dr. Spock and believe me that none of them have been as successful as Mom McCarty's new book. The book is titled "Timeout my Ass, just sit on your chair!" The book has changed the way I'm raising my kids. Some of the chapters are:

When to call the Bad Boys Home
How to Hit your kid without hurting your hand
Using the Streetlights as a curfew
Imposing the Quarter Fine for Smiling
How to Say the Rosary between Hockey Periods

So Order Mom McCarty's book now, Just send $8.95.

DATELINE LENT: by Kristen

These were the top 10 dinner choices by McCartys on the first Friday in Lent. Please note that most of the names are left out to protect the sinners.

10. Fish & Chips (how boring)
9. Cheese Sticks (yawn…)
8. Cheese burger (okay, now we're talking - apparently, Brad has special dispensation)
7. Grilled Chicken (don't mess with the Post Office)
6. Oriental Chicken Salad (Actually, the Clinton Township McCarty's all had special dispensation)
5. Chicken Wrap (yeah, but I'm not a Catholic)
4. Another Fish & Chips (The angelic son)
3. Cheese Sticks & French Fries - with an appetizer of cheese sticks (hope the plumbing can handle that one)
2. Kids burger & fries (According to Steve, Megan is too young to participate)
1. Beef Brisket w/a side of bacon (Mum forgot it was lent, and we weren't saying anything)

DATELINE HOLLYWOOD

Jerry, Kathlene, and an alien dressed all in gold, showed up at the Academy Awards. The Metro just wants to know one thing... Jer... Who did you wear?

DATELINE MUSIC WORLD

Several unsubstantiated Cockroach sightings have occurred after the rumor mill hit that there may be a movie in Hollywood depicting the lives of the washed-up band. First from L.A... Someone saw what they thought was a drunken Brad Savage and Eric Swan in a hot tub singing Cockroach Party. A couple weeks later, patrons of Per Snickitez restaurant in Clinton Township say they saw Brad Savage singing some tunes with "Original Dave" in the popular night spot. In other spottings over the week, Bob Dantzer and Carl Rollin were seen at Kokomo's in Mt. Clemens, Lake Speed was seen at a demolishion derby in Tennessee, and Eddie Stein was seen buying 6 ham sandwiches at the Grand Rapids K-Mart deli.

THE SPIROGRAPH

Spirograph was a geometric drawing toy that produced mathematical roulette curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. It was developed by British engineer Denys Fisher and first sold in 1965.

The term has also been used to describe a variety of software applications that display similar curves, and applied to the class of curves that can be produced with the drawing equipment (so in this sense it may be regarded as a synonym of hypotrochoid). The name has been a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc., since it bought the Denys Fisher company.

An instrument called a spirograph was invented by the mathematician Bruno Abakanowicz between 1881 and 1900 for calculating an area delimited by curves. Drawing toys based on gears have been around since at least 1908, when The Marvelous Wondergraph was advertised in the Sears catalog. The Boys Mechanic publication of 1913 had an article describing how to make a Wondergraph drawing machine.[4] The Spirograph itself was developed by the British engineer Denys Fisher, who exhibited at the 1965 Nuremberg International Toy Fair. It was subsequently produced by his company. US distribution rights were acquired by Kenner, Inc., which introduced it to the United States market in 1966, promoting it as a creative children's toy.

In 1968, Kenner introduced Spirotot, a less complex version of Spirograph, for preschool-age children, too young for Spirograph.

Several Spirograph designs drawn with a Spirograph setA Spirograph consists of a set of plastic gears and other shapes such as rings, triangles, or straight bars. There are several sizes of gears and shapes, and all edges have teeth to engage any other piece. For instance, smaller gears fit inside the larger rings, but also can engage the outside of the rings in such a fashion that they rotate around the inside or along the outside edge of the rings.

To use it, a sheet of paper is placed on a heavy cardboard backing, and one of the plastic pieces—known as a stator—is pinned to the paper and cardboard. Another plastic piece—called the rotor—is placed so that its teeth engage with those of the pinned piece. For example, a ring may be pinned to the paper and a small gear placed inside the ring: the actual number of arrangements possible by combining different gears is very large. The point of a pen is placed in one of the holes of the rotor. As the rotor is moved, the pen traces out a curve. The pen is used both to draw and to provide locomotive force; some practice is required before the Spirograph can be operated without disengaging the stator and rotor. More intricate and unusual-shaped patterns may be made through the use of both hands, one to draw and one to guide the pieces. It is possible to move several pieces in relation to each other (say, the triangle around the ring, with a circle "climbing" from the ring onto the triangle), but this requires concentration or even additional assistance from other artists.