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Anybody got any bars? Anyone?
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Was Le Pétomane the inspiration for the great “Crepitation Contest of 1946”? Originally available, it says here, on shellac 78 RPM records.
Platypuses lay eggs.
You go to that diner every week and you still don’t know the names of the waitresses?
Platypi lay Ei.
I do apologize for the mistake, which you’ll know if you know, but at least it’s a sign that I’m not doing it from notes.
Overlooked technology? Spreadsheet programs! This last Friday I retired as CFO of a medium sized clinic. As a young accountant graduating in 1980 all financials were basically prepared on 8 or 16 column green ledgers. Each division’s budget was laid out carefully with their departments neatly listed down the side (hand printed with a #2 pencil). The columns neatly listed their gross revenue, discounts, net revenue, operating expenses, gross margin (net revenue less operating expenses), overhead allocation, and net profit (gross margin less overhead).
Then when management decided to raise prices by 4% instead of 3% it was much gnashing of teeth as you carefully erased each revenue column and the margin columns and recalculated the columns because some idiot decided the current margin was too low to be budgeted. You wrote your numbers lightly as you knew there would be many changes.
But then came Apple III’s and the Visicalc program. 128K of beautiful lines and columns on a green screen and the ability to make mass changes instantaneously. No more big pink erasers when the change happened. A few keystrokes and the change was made.
Young accountants today have no idea how the spreadsheet programs changed our accounting lives. They will never have the thrill that came from having those programs then moving up from 128K to 256K and off to infinity! We had 3 Apple III’s that sat on rolling desks that got moved around the office as we all fought for time on them. In 1982 I predicted to my boss that within 5 years all of us would have computers on our desks. He said noooo, not in 5 years. By 1985 we all had computers on our desks.
After about 8 years of never using the old 16 column pads I finally threw them out and it still made me nervous to do so thinking I would get caught without this basic tool of a former life.
I’m just trying to picture Le Pétomane auditioning his act for his booking agent.
Did he keep the windows open?
And here I thought Robert Wohl was a pioneer.
I think it’s Wuhl.
You’re right.
Meanwhile, “Assume The Position” is pretty good.
According to his bio it wasn’t gas. He could take in large amounts of air just flexing his muscles. Kinda like a congressman.