No Flipping Way!
I wonder how
many times in my life I have said “No
flipping way!” You know, like when
someone shows you something completely new and you can’t believe it is even
possible.
Several hundred
years ago and eons before, very few opportunities came to say “No flipping way!” Maybe a bow and
arrow elicited such a response. An ax
may have excited the first hunters and gatherers. The first wheel certainly changed lives, and
for sure, fire got a whole lot of “No
flipping way’s!”. I’ll bet gun
powder and firearms got a lot of wondrous exclamations as well.
From fire,
wheels, tools and gun powder it was a lot of no change until someone figured
out an internal combustion engine.
For a
hundred or more years after that, an airplane got a “No flipping way!”, radio was huge, TV certainly got a big “No flipping way!” and atomic energy
surprised everyone except Einstein. I
left out the telephone. That allowed you
to declare “No flipping way!” from
coast to coast.
In my life
time there have been so many “No
flipping way’s!” that nothing surprises me anymore. The cell phone was cool, and internet is
great, but by the time they came around I was numb to fantastic, science-fiction-come-true
stuff.
I think the
last innovation that freaked me out and had me declare “No flipping way!” was the fax machine.
I remember
at work we needed a daily report from Chicago. I asked someone how they got this report so
fast.
“Oh, they just fax it.”
“They what?”
“They put the report in a machine in
Chicago, and that transmits the report to our machine over the phone lines and
it prints out here.”
“Get the fuck out!”
“I’m serious, this little machine here. Watch, they are sending the report now.”
“Ekk ek eek eke
k eke k eek whir eke k bringa ding eke ek….”
And the
report came printed out of a small machine.
“No flipping way!”
Since then
almost nothing surprises me.
Does anyone even
use a fax machine today?
What was
your last “No flipping way!”?
A fax machine? No flipping way.
ReplyDeleteLoved this.
Have a fabulous day and weekend. ☺
When I was told yesterday my non-communicating wife's daughter DOES communicate. By texting. I have yet to learn how to text. People ask me if I text. I say NO FLIPPING WAY!
ReplyDeleteWell, the driverless cars excited me until I found out it was more fiction than fact,
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure our financial adviser received some paperwork on Hick's 401K on his fax machine. He requested it on a conference call with a gal from New Zealand who was working in Arizona. Yeah. I was thinking, "No flippin' way!"
ReplyDeleteI think I'm numb...or dumb....nothing fazes me.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much technology, and it changes so fast, it's hard to find impressive things any more. As for the fax machine, yes, you can send faxes, some people still do.
ReplyDeleteIt was probably when I got my Bachelor of Arts degree. (I still think they probably just felt sorry for me.)
ReplyDeleteMy last "No Flipping Way" was just this morning when I discovered I'd lost something important.
ReplyDeleteI remember feeling enthralled by the new gadget in the office, a fax machine. Look at us now, up to our ears with new inventions.
ReplyDeleteThings they are learning about the body...not technology, but maybe many breakthroughs.
ReplyDeleteLike Bijoux said, the driverless cars amaze me, but if I ever need to call for an Uber and a driverless one shows up I will be forced to say "No flipping way!"
ReplyDeleteI think 'smart phones' that access the internet in the middle of nowhere are a 'no flippin way' moment for me. Or running a credit card via satellite from the middle of Africa. . .
ReplyDeleteThe amazing thing to me about fax machines is how quickly they came and went. When they first came out, they were so cool, and enabled all sorts of things, and within 10-15 years, they're hardly even used anymore. . . Sort of like cassette tapes and CDs. . .
I think cell phones. How did my land line know when I dialed the number that my brother's cell phone was in some obscure town in Florida and found him instantly? No flipping way.
ReplyDeleteI have reached the point where I see something new and just wonder WHY? Who needs it? Refrigerators you can call on your cell phone and find out what you need to buy at the grocery store? No flippin' way will I ever feel the need for that. I just went on a search for a refrigerator that doesn't even have an ice maker because I just think of them as a mold making machine. Good grief, I sound cranky, don't I?
ReplyDeleteWhen a coworker said ODOT was testing driverless snow plows on I71.
ReplyDeleteI watched some drone footage from a roof inspection that was done by my bosses at work. That came pretty close to "no flipping way."
ReplyDelete