In our house, flies and other insects are thrown into the turtle tank. Leonardo appreciates the occasional meal served fresh.
Tell me something about yourself that is Amazing, Unbelievable, Surprising or Odd. =)
- Thread starter KenECoyote
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Wow! I remember something of that area! in the 90's and early 2000's, my company did a lot of work at the (original) Astoria and Ravenwood Generating stations along the East River, sometimes a week or two at a time so we got to know the area, esp. the restaurants! That's out a ways from where we generally went, but one day we were testing-and re-testing, trying to find a structural vibration issue - and our customer (not the utility directly) kept us in the plant for 14 hours without going out for lunch or anything. I told him, "don't look real close at our expenses for tonight, because we're going to go find the biggest steak in New York!" We ended up over in Rego Park at a place called London Lenny's on (I'm pretty sure) Woodhaven Blvd. Amd we had an appetizer, drink before dinner, salad, French onion soup, bread, surf'n'turf, wine, more bread, and cappucino with desert! Thanks for jogging that memory!
You could tell why women liked him a lot. Tall, courtly and handsome, supposedly he had what they call "animal magnetism".
@Blast it Tom!
At the time, Perot was talking about a "giant sucking sound" of American jobs going to other countries. We at Boeing in the represented jobs were becoming concerned. But more than that, I was disappointed in the major party candidates.
Something that has continued unabated for me...
Lotsa folks have those dreams.
Be worried when your dream is showing up but forgetting to wear pants.
I did a summer internship at Ravenswood power plant in the late 80s (I think Electrical team under Chuck?). I helped replace a lot of the small steam (?) lines. One time I worked over the giant boilers (in the summer!) where it was so hot that for every 15 minutes work, we'd get 45 minutes break. At one point I bent down to pick something up and when I straightened up, my 24k gold necklace charm, which had been gathering radiant heat, actually burned my chest!
London Lenny's is on Woodhaven, but farther away near Queens Blvd. I've been there a number of times and a few times it was my birthday dinner place of choice. It was always an incredibly good meal and I do miss it!
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Since we're talking about meeting people and degrees of separation, I'll join in with an unusual one.....
Around 1984, I was invited to a small private party hosted by Atari. The guests were Fleetwood Mac! They were demonstrating Atari's MIDI interface at COMDEX or CES, can't remember which. This was a fancy shindig with a lit-up ice sculpture fountain and 5-star catering. But, that's not important. ;-)
Fleetwood did a drum solo with only MIDI pickups hidden in various parts of his clothing. It was awesome. You can probably guess where the crash cymbal pickup was!
As the night went on, things got weird. Mick Fleetwood is difficult to describe... high energy and funny. (Not sure how much of that was chemically induced!). Anyways, a friend was wearing a large moose hat. It was his "hook" at the trade show, and he wore it to the party. Mick stole it and wouldn't give it back. We chased him and a couple of band members throughout the hotel, with someone different popping up with the hat on, but mostly Mick. Up and down stairways and elevators, into the bar, and other places which are a blur after 36 years. He finally returned the hat and we all had a good laugh.
None of the other band members were as approachable as Fleetwood. In hindsight, this was a bad period for many of them, an album flopped, and some ending up in rehab, etc.
Note: Some of the details have been redacted.
Around 1984, I was invited to a small private party hosted by Atari. The guests were Fleetwood Mac! They were demonstrating Atari's MIDI interface at COMDEX or CES, can't remember which. This was a fancy shindig with a lit-up ice sculpture fountain and 5-star catering. But, that's not important. ;-)
Fleetwood did a drum solo with only MIDI pickups hidden in various parts of his clothing. It was awesome. You can probably guess where the crash cymbal pickup was!
As the night went on, things got weird. Mick Fleetwood is difficult to describe... high energy and funny. (Not sure how much of that was chemically induced!). Anyways, a friend was wearing a large moose hat. It was his "hook" at the trade show, and he wore it to the party. Mick stole it and wouldn't give it back. We chased him and a couple of band members throughout the hotel, with someone different popping up with the hat on, but mostly Mick. Up and down stairways and elevators, into the bar, and other places which are a blur after 36 years. He finally returned the hat and we all had a good laugh.
None of the other band members were as approachable as Fleetwood. In hindsight, this was a bad period for many of them, an album flopped, and some ending up in rehab, etc.
Note: Some of the details have been redacted.
I skied down a mountain, that I couldn't see because of my eyes watering from the wind speed. I was an instructor level skier.
Competitive athletes often get away with incredible risks. A number of years ago I was racing for a regional karting championship on the last lap of the last race of the season. It began raining and I left the track at over 100mph, destroying my kart after hitting a stationary kart, a barrel, a tire wall and finally a concrete Jersey barrier. I spent the next year building another, better kart (seen below) and went on to win a national karting championship trophy.
Homemade racing kart with Yamaha RZ350 motorcycle engine. Top speed 155mph. Lap times quick enough to have qualified at the back of the field of a 1980's era Indy Car race at Portland International Raceway.
I too am a qualified snow ski instructor. I have been known to go into a few situations too quick, but luckily I usually come out OK and don't make the same mistake twice.
I have also trained in aerial freestyle skiing, just for fun. If I end up accidentally airborne (refer to earlier paragraph) I can usually land it ok.
Regarding speed, around 80kph is the top of my comfort zone, and it goes from comfortable to uncomfortable over a small incremental increase in speed. I find that peculiar.
That's the both the greatness and the trouble with skiing... things can go downhill very quickly.
I liked to ski in the trees. Just making my own path through the trees. Places nobody else had been. Nice clean powder. One time I ended upside down in the snow. It was deep enough that I couldn't touch the ground with a pole. So, I'm upside down hanging from my skis in the woods where no ne else had been. I had our oldest daughters Walkman and a bota bag. I was more worried about the Walkman than my situation. I released my bindings and swam to the top of the powder. I had pushed my poles up while I was still upside down. Once on top I sat there and put my skis back on, got my poles and off I went back through the trees. It took me about a half an hour to get myself out of that spot. If I hadn't got out they would have found me in the spring. Lots of fun. I miss skiing.
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Wow. I made a handful of laps in an enduro kart as a favor somebody offered - not nearly as cool as that one - and I did a dumb kid thing at the end that got me in trouble. At the local track on test days is was ok to pass pit in and go to the end and whip the cart around for tire pressure changes etc. All good at a local track with not many people around, but apparently not ok if there are a bunch of WKA people around at a real event when you weren't even supposed to be in the kart. DOH! I got a smack-down from the official and the actual owner of the kart got a talking-to. I was 13-14-ish and all of the adults arguing made me really uncomfortable/scared that I did something really bad.
At the end of the day, I was a not that good kid that got lucky to get into a basic (compared to the pic for sure) kart for a few laps on a track I had no business driving and made a race weekend for legit people more difficult. Kinda sucks, but the few laps were interesting for sure. I was only a back marker in the stock light division back then, but a friend of a friend of an uncle (etc) went 'sure' and I made some laps at Robeling Road in an enduro kart that was a 125-ish cc, I think. Regardless of what it was, I had no business in it and it was so different from the Briggs stock light class that I'm glad I stopped sooner than later, but dumb as heck to wrong way to the pit for sure. . .
Sandy.
Very nifty bike and kart combo. I started karting in a 100cc Yamaha sit up in the 80's. But years before that I began road racing in a BMW 700S in the Sports Car Club of America. As a teenager I begged my mother for a loan to buy a race car. She agreed on the basis I would never ride a motorcycle. But many years later I bought a Suzuki 600 Bandit and did some touring to Yellowstone and later to San Francisco on the coast highway. Tell us a bit about your bike and kart.It's about the most fun you can have with your clothes on.
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After a few posts about things that actually require some skill and daring, here's another silly one from me ...
I gave Ringo Starr the button that he wore during his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
I gave Ringo Starr the button that he wore during his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
What button was that?
(I didn't know whether to add a "wow" or "love" reaction that one lol)
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When I was a teenager, I was doing leg presses of almost 1,000lbs during my High School Weight Training class. Our Universal machine only went up to about 820/850, so my friend would stand on the stack as I did my leg presses.
I later found a machine that had 1,200lbs and did that three times, but had to stop. The stack was so heavy that even though I did the full range of motion, the flexing only allowed the stack to go up and down a limited distance and no matter how gingerly I tried to lower it, the stack would send a big deep "BOOM!" through the gym floor.
This was at a 24hr gym late at night so no one was around, but the staff was downstairs and sure enough someone eventually came up to check.
The kicker is that my girlfriend at the time took me there and she was book smart (graduated Polytechnic with a degree in Organic Chemistry), but was pretty ditzy otherwise (ironically one of the reasons I broke up with her lol).
She wouldn't believe it was 1,200lbs despite the huge 3-4' high stack of metal because the stickers on them only went up to "120"... apparently the gym tried to save on stickers, so they left off the last digit. Also I had hurt my knee earlier that night diving in the pool and had to visit the nurse there.
At that time I weighed only 120lbs.
(Note: this is one reason why I was able to stand up to the gangster bully I mentioned earlier...my weight training class considered me the strongest kid in my school.)
Later on in my twenties my knees got pretty bad. I wonder why...
I later found a machine that had 1,200lbs and did that three times, but had to stop. The stack was so heavy that even though I did the full range of motion, the flexing only allowed the stack to go up and down a limited distance and no matter how gingerly I tried to lower it, the stack would send a big deep "BOOM!" through the gym floor.
This was at a 24hr gym late at night so no one was around, but the staff was downstairs and sure enough someone eventually came up to check.
The kicker is that my girlfriend at the time took me there and she was book smart (graduated Polytechnic with a degree in Organic Chemistry), but was pretty ditzy otherwise (ironically one of the reasons I broke up with her lol).
She wouldn't believe it was 1,200lbs despite the huge 3-4' high stack of metal because the stickers on them only went up to "120"... apparently the gym tried to save on stickers, so they left off the last digit. Also I had hurt my knee earlier that night diving in the pool and had to visit the nurse there.
At that time I weighed only 120lbs.
(Note: this is one reason why I was able to stand up to the gangster bully I mentioned earlier...my weight training class considered me the strongest kid in my school.)
Later on in my twenties my knees got pretty bad. I wonder why...
now that's "unbelievable"
Thank you!now that's "unbelievable"
My father as well as my siblings and I were always very strong, but thin and wiry.
My father used to tell me a lot of tales and I had no reason to doubt him because I saw a lot myself. He used to take us fishing in his row boat and would row us ALL DAY (trolling using minnows). Morning until evening. Dang.
My brother was VERY strong upper body wise (he could do 60 pull ups and 150 push-ups as a teen), but he only ever did up to 800lbs leg press.
My sister is 90lbs, but dang strong for her size and she constantly surprises people.
I've also run 5 marathons and that I can prove - slow though since I'm actually more of a sprinter...some at METRA have seen me run for my rocket on fire in my heavy boots and I was holding back. Still, the leg presses are what I was prouder of.
As a cyclist, I used to be a very good Hill climber (can you guess why? Lol) and all the times I've been on the NYC 5-Borough Bicycle tour (even a few years ago), when we climb to the crest of the Staten Island Bridge, I believe no one has ever passed me and we're talking hundreds of cyclists (of course usually it wasn't race pace, etc.).
To me, the movie "Unbreakable" was almost along the same lines...just keep pushing and it's just amazing how much can be pushed sometimes.
Me in 2018...I can still do this at age 54 (I held it since my wife was taking the pic lol):
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Also hold on...I have more coming that's wilder than that!now that's "unbelievable"
boatgeek
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You have to watch out for the wiry ones!
Especially my sister!
SecondRow
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Skinny guys fight till they're burger.
Here's a secret...small & skinny guys have nothing to lose fighting bigger guys, however big guys can lose reputation and respect.
Like I mentioned in the first post, I grew up fighting, so I would usually pick the biggest guy in my gym classes and challenge them to wrestle under almost the same rules...no marks on the face. The "almost" addition was also no groin attacks...yes, my older brother would do that.
I never lost a match. One draw though...giant Russian guy in my Taekwondo class, but he broke the rules and scratched my face pretty badly.
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My sister was a weight lifter. Probably 100 trophies. 40+ years ago.Especially my sister!
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Back in the 70's and 80's I used to play tournament backgammon for fun and money. Once I was a semifinalist in the US Open at Las Vegas. When I was there, I spectated at a money game involving the legendary Oswald Jacoby. The stakes were a stack of hundred dollar bills under the edge of the board so thick, the board was visibly raised up on one end. Jacoby won the game, but only by throwing four consecutive doubles 5's in the roll off.
What are the odds against that?
What are the odds against that?
I think the odds are 36 x 36 x 36 x 36 = 1,679,616 to one
I did a 40 mile round trip bicycle commute for 14 years. Aproximately 1.5 hours each way. Ocassionally I would skip due to the weather, but it was usually 5 days a week. My rough estimate is that I went over 100,000 miles. I probably saved the largest part of a car purchase, almost zero gas costs, and priceless health benefits.
