I am reminded once again that I have some of the most thoughtful readers imaginable. Over the years, I’ve received boxes of chocolate, cases of wine, bottles of bourbon, but the other day I got this………..
An old computer magazine. So what? Well, the “so what” is that this is like a time capsule for me. This magazine, from almost 40 years ago, was precisely the kind of world in which I was immersed in my youth. It was such a pleasure thumbing through it, particularly the ads. Check out this gem:
Yes, that’s really the ad. They put it together on a dot matrix printer. More important, the software was specifically about managing a stock portfolio.
I also thought this one was cool:
In those days, the idea of actually getting software over the telephone was amazing to people, since normally they had to wait for days for a disk to show up in the mail. So a few people did in fact “experience the future” at 300 baud.
The kind gent who sent me this magazine pledged that more would be on the way. That’s wonderful; I love this stuff!
On an utterly different note, I just had to share a somewhat amusing anecdote. By way of background, there’s apparen company called HelloFresh which is like a competitor to Blue Apron, and they hired Lea Michele to hawk their wares.
I watch very, very little television, but I watched the Democratic Debates the other night, and the aforementioned commercial came on the air. I had trouble believing the words I heard her say during this commercial – – this won’t be exact, but something close to, “It’s important to me, because what I put into my body determines what comes out.“
Ummm. Did anyone – – anyone at all – – dare raise the question with the copywriter that perhaps that might not be the best-constructed choice of words? Or am I the only one puerile and demented enough to recognize just how terrible that sounds?
