We have a really young staff of editors at Southwest’s Spirit magazine, which probably means they think I’m really old. When we first began discussing this issue’s cover story on “Last Tech”—yesterday’s cool, no-longer-new technology—I got all excited telling them about the Super Ball (now spelled “SuperBall”). I was ten years old in 1965 when this amazing invention first hit the stores. A different era. (For one thing they didn’t do that annoying, Internet-friendly WordSmooshing.)
I told the Spirit staff that Wham-O (neat-o name!) made the ball well worth its high price tag of 99 cents. My brothers and I each bought one as soon as it came out, and we talked Mom into backing the car out of the garage so we’d have a place to throw them.
Heaving them all at once, we suddenly found ourselves immersed in a physically impossible science experiment, like Schrödinger’s cat. The three balls seemed to multiply as they caromed off the walls, filling the entire space with hard whizzing objects. Inevitably, I got beaned. It stung like crazy. So I threw the offending ball as hard as I could in hope that my brothers would get hit as well, which they did. It was the coolest toy ever.
Those were the days when the highest of high-tech toys could be thrown at, or in dangerous proximity of, your brother. Sure, now you can blow up his avatar on a videogame; but believe me, it’s not the same thing.
After rejecting my contribution, the staff listed “obsolete” objects like the drinking fountain, blackboard, wine cork, payphone, hotel key, product manual, photo film—all yesterday’s news. Almost literally yesterday. What does that say about the coolness half-life of the iPad? Our story should give you a clue.
Also in this issue: a funny, enlightening story by Manny Howard, who established a farm in the middle of Brooklyn and fed his family with it for a year. His book, My Empire of Dirt, comes out next month.
Speaking of nature, this month’s dollar-bill origami project (“Folding Money”) is a squirrel. Customers on Southwest flights are already pretending to feed them peanuts. Now, that’s technology I can get my hands on.
