This really ought to be in another thread, but it would just get lost there.
Sorry too to revive painful memories. But does anyone remember the Wham-o superball, later superseded by hundreds of unbranded types?
It was an extra bouncy, extra grippy dense rubberoid ball. You could make it bounce at funny angles - for example two or three times from the floor to a vertical wall and back - by putting the right sort of spin on it. The simplest thing you could do was to chuck it down with lots of backspin and it would bounce back to you instead of away at the same angle.
That was what happened with the disallowed goal against Germany. The ball got the backspin from hitting the crossbar, and bounced back instead of forward at an equivalent angle, just like a Wham-o superball.
Sorry to be so incredibly boring. I'm sure you all knew what had happened the moment you saw it, and are now buried in the last quartile, Mars vs Jupiter, all that carp. Me I don't care now the Orkneys have fallen to Bhutan.
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Don't remember the brand, but do remember having super-bouncy 'rubber' balls of various sizes as a kid.
One trick was to bounce one under a table and have it come back to you - it picked up forward spin when it hit the floor traveliing away froim you, which effectively became backspin when it hit the underside of the table, hence reversing its path.
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you dont need wham 'o superballs to do spin them back.
My favourite party trick is to throw an ordinary tennis size ball to bounce in front of somone and have it bounce back to me instead. It amuses young children (under 5), but I dont do it with dogs anymore - I tired it with one of the Malinois, and it got so frustreated it tried to take my fingers off.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 30 Jun 10 at 08:12
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I was only thinking about superballs last week and what fun they were and to have one of the first ones made you something special.
Bit like the Dinky DB5 that had the guns come out the front, the bullet shield at the back and of course the plastic passenger could be ejected too. Still got mine!!
M
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At school there was some ghastly game where everyone would crowd into one of the fives courts, and a superball was chucked as hard as possible at the front wall. Anyone hit on the ensuing rocketing about was out. Repeat until one person is left.
I seem to recall joining the origami club very fast to avoid it, or possibly flower arranging.
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I was at junior school when they arrived and remember lots of fun with them until one went through a window pane into the school hall. It left the whole floor covered with paper-thin slivers of glass.
They were then banned, and I got the blame, but I'm sure it wasn't me. Honest!
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In a rare alliance, my sister and I pooled resources to get one and smuggle it home, plenty of covert fun, but hurt when it hit you in the boat race.
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>> Bit like the Dinky DB5 that had the guns come out the front, the bullet
>> shield at the back and of course the plastic passenger could be ejected too. Still
>> got mine!!
>>
Me too...and it's in it's box with the spare passenger for the ejaculator seat !
Ted
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Wham-o superball - Focusless
