15 Dec
1998
15 Dec
'98
4:48 p.m.
On Tue, 15 Dec 1998, dave dameron wrote:
I was looked through some older magazines and found
another computer kit
from about 1959, 1960, a full page ad for the "geniac". It has 6 dials, each
with 16 sets of radial holes. It's cost was US$19.95 and made in Mass. My
(ssnip)
-Dave
Before me is a little book from my childhood.. one I had in 4th
grade, lost, and recently found another copy of. It is "The Space
Child's Mother Goose" and was printed in 1958. (I read it in 1960) It
is a unique collection of 'modernized' nursery rhymes, with
whimsical fine-point pen drawings. On page 36 is a drawing of a kid
standing on a stool, writing formulae on the blackboard and operating
a Geniac, while off to one side a Bearded Professor exhibits great
surprise. The rhyme for this page is:
Geniac, Geniac,
Digital miracle,
Giving and answer that's
Truly empirical.
Learned men, lost in a
Drawjopping daze,
Watch six-year-old Seniors, all
Grabbing off A's.
Note that the strangely spelt word in the text is as it appears;
part of the magic of this little book and perhaps partly an
explanation for The Way I Am today... draw your own conclusions.
;}
Cheers and Best of the Season
John