What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?

[blogslut]

A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing!
Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky,
it's fun, it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky,
It's fun for a girl or a boy!

:hi:

[blonndee]

1. LOL!

What in the world is he doing with a Slinky? :P

[blogslut]

2. here's the photo caption

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., plays with a Slinky toy during a tour of the Johnstown Wire Factory in Johnstown, Pa., Saturday, March 29, 2008. The plant makes the Slinky.

[blonndee]

4. Ah, thank you!

I thought it HAD to be something like that. Cool! I love that picture.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Holy Shit!

He found something that is still made here! :woohoo: :patriot:

Damn!

[PylesMalfunction]

6. I know!

A toy still made in the USA! Amazing!

[Faygo Kid]

21. Loved my Slinky as a kid in the late '50s

As I recall, that's when they first came out.

Whenever it was new, I had one, and so did my brother. Probably played with it a whole 10 minutes before figuring out that it was kind of boring. Great to send down the stairs after the cat, though.

[nichomachus]

23. They came out much earlier

I had one in the late '40s. My understanding is that at the end of WW2, some manufacturer had an oversupply of long metal coils that were needed for some wartime effort, but for which there was no longer any demand. Someone came up with the idea of cutting them into small lengths, resulting in the Slinky. It was an immediate hit.

[roguevalley]

24. if you want to lower your blood pressure (truly), sit in a quiet room

and close your eyes. Holding the slinky, make it go back and forth. It will lull you right to sleep. :) Truly.

I love me some slinky. Especially the really tiny ones. :)

[lligrd]

3. I Have One On My Desk And Have Been Known To Carry It

to meetings. Gobama!

[lapfog_1]

7. Maybe this is a better toy!

"What rolls down stairs alone or in pairs
rolls over your neighbor's dog?
What's great for a snack and fits on your back?
It's Log, Log, Log!

It's Log, Log, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's Log, Log, it's better than bad, it's good!
Everyone wants a log! You're gonna love it, Log!
Come on and get your log! Everyone needs a Log!"

[SunsetDreams]

8. hmmmm

those could be made in any country depending on where the toilet is :)

[demodonkey]

9. But we DO make them in Pennsylvania.... come on, buy a Slinky nt

[SunsetDreams]

11. loll see post 7

[TwilightGardener]

13. What was that from? Was it "Ren and Stimpy"? I remember Log.

[lapfog_1]

14. Yup, from Blammo!

Ren and Stimpy...

And don't forget "Log for girls!"

[TwilightGardener]

15. LOL! I'll always remember Ren and Stimpy for "Gritty Kitty Litter"--

that's what we've called cat litter in our house ever since.

[SunsetDreams]

16. ha ha ha "gritty kitty litter"

[Moochy]

22. Yum!

I swear by the stuff!

[mopinko]

20. ah, ren and stimpy

i see it as that beginning of the truly twisted above-ground toons.

[FrenchieCat]

10. Multi tasking! Listening intently to a conversation......

while playing with a Slinky! :rofl:

That's great!

[Withywindle]

12. How can any man look so serious with a Slinky in his hands?

Great pic!

[Swamp Rat]

17. Norma Desmond?

"All right, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close up!" :D

[roguevalley]

26. thank you, swamp rat. truly, I have been looking for that picture for

a long time. (a private joke among friends.) :)

[Swamp Rat]

30. Glad I could help

:D

[blogslut]

18. slinky kick

:)

[Guava Jelly]

19. I believe the Slinky is the Offical state toy of Pennsylvania

:D

[Prophet 451]

25. Slinky: Worst Toy Ever

I hated Slinkys. The ads always tried to make it sound like more fun than feeding LSD to a rhino but it's still a fricking spring/ You can shuffle it from hand to hand, watch it walk down a couple of steps before it overbalances and tumbles the rest of the way and... Actually, that's it.

[Faygo Kid]

31. You forgot about Mainway Toys' "Bag O'Glass"

Dan Aykroyd as Irwin Mainway. Classic.



Consumer Reporter: Alright. Fine. Fine. Well, we'd like to show you another one of Mr. Mainway's products. It retails for $1.98, and it's called Bag O' Glass. < holds up bag of glass > Mr. Mainway, this is simply a bag of jagged, dangerous, glass bits.

Irwin Mainway: Yeah, right, it's you know, it's glass, it's broken glass, you know? It sells very well, as a matter of fact, you know? It's just broken glass, you know?

Consumer Reporter: < laughs > I don't understand. I mean, children could seriously cut themselves on any one of these pieces!

Irwin Mainway: Yeah, well, look - you know, the average kid, he picks up, you know, broken glass anywhere, you know? The beach, the street, garbage cans, parking lots, all over the place in any big city. We're just packaging what the kids want! I mean, it's a creative toy, you know? If you hold this up, you know, you see colors, every color of the rainbow! I mean, it teaches him about light refraction, you know? Prisms, and that stuff! You know what I mean?

Consumer Reporter: So, you don't feel that this product is dangerous?

Irwin Mainway: No! Look, we put a label on every bag that says, "Kid! Be careful - broken glass!" I mean, we sell a lot of products in the "Bag O'" line.. like Bag O' Glass, Bag O' Nails, Bag O' Bugs, Bag O' Vipers, Bag O' Sulfuric Acid. They're decent toys, you know what I mean?

[PoliticalAmazon]

27. I'll be damned. A factory that Hillary Clinton DIDN'T send to India!

She's in big trouble if her Indian puppetmasters find out.

[PoliticalAmazon]

Obama's just studying Hillary Clinton's twists and flip-flopping on the issues. n/t

[VolcanoJen]

28. The best present yet, to give or get, the kids will all wanna try!!

The hit of the day
When you're ready to play
Everyone knows it's Slinky!!!

Love the photo, blogslut!!!

[Avalux]

29. THE Slinky is made in Hollidaysburg PA - my home turf.

Very cool! :D

[starroute]

32. Why are so many people badmouthing Slinkies?

Maybe it was because I lived in an old apartment building with long stairways that didn't get used much, but us kids in the building spent a lot of time running Slinky races down those stairs. Whoever got theirs closest to the bottom before it lamed out, won -- and firing off your Slinky with just the right amount of momentum to carry it along smoothly was as much of an art as firing off a pinball to catch the bonus slots at the top.

Sometimes we'd take our Slinkies outdoors and pretend to be juggling them from hand to hand. Or hold one end and let the other end bounce up and down as if it was a ball or a yoyo. I even recall wearing mine on my forearm as a sort of bracelet, just so I'd have it handy. Eventually, they'd get bent somewhere and not slink as well, so I must have gone through two or three in the course of my childhood.

What really sucked, though, was when my own kids were little and all you could find were those dippy plastic Slinkies that wouldn't do anything. Somebody must have decided the metal ones were too hazardous to be allowed in the hands of five-year-olds. Eventually the metal ones came back, but it was too late for my kids -- they'd missed the prime Slinky age bracket.

[Adelante]

33. I loved my Slinky

The going downstairs thing was fun :)

[cooolandrew]

34. Wooohooo I am enjoying the great humor today. Ignore the detractors.