Karen: Every year when summer rolls around, I think of the summers of my youth. So much of my time then was spent outdoors, at play. Although my friends and I engaged in a variety of activities, there's one I remember more fondly than the others: playing Frisbee.Karen: That simple plastic disc was a wonderful toy. Relatively cheap, easily transportable, and you could play almost anywhere, if you had enough room. It required some skill to throw it well, but it wasn't all that difficult to learn how to do it. You could play a fast-paced, football-like game, or just toss it back and forth while talking.
Karen: One year we became so fond of our Frisbee playing, that I got a glow in the dark disc so we could play in the park at night! It was great, until one night the cops came by and shooed us out of the park. But we just moved on to other places.
Karen: If you were really lucky, you had a dog who could catch a Frisbee. My dog Rex loved chasing after the flying disc. Watching him leap through the air after it was always a blast.
Karen: For me the Frisbee is inextricably linked to summer, and to freedom. That spinning disc will always represent good times and the carefree days of youth to me. Thanks Wham-O.
The exquisite beauty of the Frisbee is that it's an all-in-one toy. Just one disk is all that is needed to play for hours.
ReplyDeleteIt's elegant, it's simple, it's just plain fun.
And it's very user-friendly. While it takes a long time to get proficient with a Frisbee, it only takes a few moments to get good enough to have a blast with a Frisbee. And it has no rules!
Great toy!
Rip Off
Kudos to the Frisbee.. Ok, was it just me, or if you nailed down the perfectly-directed spin, didn't it make you feel like Captain America for a few moments..?
ReplyDeleteOther than a few incidents up on someone's roof, the frisbee was indeed unstoppable. It was always interesting for my step-dad to climb up on the roof once/twice a year and find remnants of summer fun long gone, throwing down tennis balls, super balls, and an occasional 'THAT'S-where-that-went' frisbee.
Never had a dog who would catch the disks, but sure looked fun on commercials.
The Frisbee is indeed the ultimate toy/novelty/recreational device. Funny though, most of the fun I remember having with Frisbees dates back to high school and, even more so, college, rather than earlier childhood. And Rip is right, it is totally user-friendly, as well as being light-weight and easy to carry around - so much fun from such a small piece of plastic.
ReplyDeleteFrisbee's great. Love the diving catch!
ReplyDeleteLater we had the ring, which seemed to fly forever, and also a frisbee with a handle going straight down from the center. Neither were as good as regular frisbee though!
I STILL enjoy Frisbee (disc, actually) golf. We spent WAAAAAY too much time playing in college, and a few of my friends still get up with me to play our favorite courses. I call it Poor Man's golf. Most state parks in Delaware have courses, so if you have an annual pass or pay a couple bucks, it's cheap entertainment. And you can drink beer while you play (don't get caught at Lum's Pond, though). It's not all stuffy like real golf, most people let you play thru, or even join up with them, if you're not familiar with the course. I'd like to play more this summer, but the HEAT and poison ivy have put a damper on my outdoor activity this summer. Hippy Golf!
ReplyDeletestarfoxxx
Oh wow-- the lifetime's length of different memories and associations I have connected with playing Frisbee could fill out an entire extended NPR segment. Probably This American Life. . . possibly Studio 360.
ReplyDelete-First Frisbee: That REALLY early model that was designed to look like a little flying saucer. Played it with my Dad, who had me perpetually laughing myself to my knees by giving me hilarious grief over my bad throws. A rare unabashedly happy memory of a troubled relationship.
-"XL-One" game w/ my buddy. The "aliens" inside took whatever beating the disc went through (becoming more and more wrecked) until the disc eventually landed upside down, and then we'd go to "XL-Two", etc, etc. I have no earthly idea why we thought this was so entertaining-- but we played it for about two weeks, w/ neighborhood folks wondering what our shrieks of laughter could possibly be about.
-A terrific "college" cast party (after my senior year of high school), playing fight-for-it along a bank by the river. Felt unusually adept and athletic. Director's girlfriend (two years older than me), made a blatant (and ultimately successful) pass at me. . . (ahem).
-Learning how to do catching tricks in the courtyard of my dorm. Playing SO hard, but feeling, well, "cool" is the only apt word. A perfect, particularly memorable early-fall day.
-Playing with my wife on the very-low budget camping trips we took early in our married years. She insisted it was all the entertainment anyone should need. She's always lacked depth-perception, so I may have been more entertained than she. . . but boy, we did have a fun time of it-!
-HBSon figured out how to throw it very well shortly before his third birthday (!). We would play on the front lawn of the Folger Shakespeare Theater & Library in DC (I was in a show). He was simply delightful to watch, and he never wanted to stop. We had a whole routine of "special" things we did those afternoons, and he was at a stage where he wanted to match his clothes with what I was wearing, so my Goober-Dad rating was hopelessly high. I opted to surrender to it, and wear that badge with unyielding pride.
He hit a jogging James Carville with the frisbee on two different occasions. . .
Hmm-- bet I'm in character-limit trouble here-!
HB
With all due apologies to my partner and moderator of this post, I am going to hijack the comments with my impressions of Amazing Spider-Man, which I finally got round to seeing this afternoon (thanks to younger son for saying "C'mon Dad!").
ReplyDeleteOverall, a B from this teacher. I agree with my sons' assessment that Andrew Garfield was flat-out weird, anxious, jittery -- you name it, I found his mannerisms distracting. His moments of sincere sheepishness were well-done, but the stuttering and stammering was too often Bendis-like. He looked good in the Spider-suit, though; his lithe body suited the Ditko-era tone of the film. As I think I've said before, Tobey Maguire had more of a Romita-like build.
Emma Stone owned the part of Gwen Stacy. As HB said in the dedicated ASM movie thread, he and I will both both be gearing up for some major tears when she meets her inevitable end. She was sweet, smart, gorgeous, brave -- Johnny Romita's pencil strokes were all over her. Fabulous.
I enjoyed the take on Ben and May Parker as brought by veteran actors Martin Sheen and Sally Field. I couldn't decide if by the end of the film May knew about Peter's double life.
The photography interest of Peter was never fully explained. Did he edit the school yearbook? Why would he have set up his camera in the sewers? Obviously he wasn't doing it to sell crime photos, as the dummy had his name stamped right on the camera! And it was a film camera, too -- that seemed odd given the integration of practical and fantastical technology to the film.
The scene near the end with the cranes was pure cheesy film making. Bad -- really bad. The only thing missing was the cheering of the crane operators.
The scene between Gwen and Peter at the end was very well done. Man, Emma Stone was great!
The Lizard was too big and too strong. If the spider webs were being advertised as able to tow a 747, and Spidey basically cocooned ol' Liz in them, then his easy breaking-out was Hulk-level. Uh uh. And are there really little lizards running around all over Manhattan? And why would they have been drawn to the Lizard? Too weird.
The CGI was well done. Not much of a reason to build a real set these days, is there?
However, the 3D gave me a "tired eyes" headache by the end of the film.
No clue as to the ID of the mystery man in the bonus scene; however, in looking for those Easter Eggs throughout the film, I did take note of one of the robotic devices as Oscorp Labs that mimicked Doc Ock's tentacles -- could be some foreshadowing.
I didn't care for the angle that Curt Connors was a bad seed. Driven, OK, but it seemed like he was a bad guy.
So those are my first impressions. Now I need to go see Batman -- yeah, I'm a little behind! Karen's already chastised me for it, and she's right!
Be good,
Doug