Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - November 19, 2025 [Nostalgia Rex]

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety. What? A double shenanigans link?! Yep - just for tonight. Because you're special (and it fits with the theme).

Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another random assortment of interweb morsels and mystery clicks. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Good will offerings of amusing puns are happily accepted. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors. Don't be a traffic cone.

"Aayyyy! Time for Wednesday ONT content!"

Today is World Toilet Day according to the United Nations. Happy toilet day! No, this isn't AI and I did not make it up. In the spirit of the celebration, commenter number 2 will win the Official ONT Toilet Bowl Award for the day.

Imagine the work of an archeologist that attempts to construct a picture of what life was like based solely on fragments and pieces. Egyptologists work to figure out the story of ancient Egypt based on sculptures, tombs, ruins of buildings, and hieroglyphs. Dinosaurologists (otherwise known as paleontologists) attempt to imagine the life of dinosaurs before the unfortunate asteroid incident.

What will people of the future use to reconstruct our world? What could they look at? What would they think if they used only magazine covers?

The ONT is here to tackle the hard questions (in the name of science). What year? Let's give 1978 a try.

"This is going to be very random, isn't it?"

Yes. Yes it is. Enjoy!

Please excuse tankdemon for being late. He is STILL digging through his collection of Compute! magazines looking for the issue with Hunt the Wumpus cheat codes.

Exit question: How many are still being published today? ( I don't know the answer - I just ask questions.)

Because I knew you would ask, "Weeds, Trees and Turf Magazine" made it until 2000 before being absorbed by Turf Magazine which continues to publish quality content in hard copy and virtual form for "green industry professionals, offering insights on business management, greenskeeping, lawn care, landscape design, irrigation, snow and ice management, and the latest landscaping equipment." Carl Spackler approves.

Top ten magazines in the US in December 1978 by average paid circulation:

1 - TV Guide - 19,137,406
2 - Reader's Digest - 18,108,000
3 - National Geographic - 10,184,000
4 - Better Homes and Gardens - 8,006,357
5 - Family Circle - 7,503,124
6 - Woman's Day - 7,003,456
7 - Good Housekeeping - 5,406,799
8 - Ladies' Home Journal - 5,402,131
9 - McCall's - 5,305,189
10- Playboy - 5,206,111

The Pittsburgh police scanner keeps giving. Thank you people of Pittsburgh!

Not sure why you'd call the police, but...

The good news is that it isn't an intruder. The bad news...

Grand finale:

ONT Department of Legal Mumbo Jumbo - are you following the court battles on gerrymandering? On a 2-1 vote, a Federal district court on Nov 18 decided that redrawn congressional district maps in Texas were invalid because they were "racially gerrymandered." Ace covered the story yesterday.

If you are following this story, you'll be interested to know that a separate dissent was released today. Highly unusual. Want to know why? Read the dissent.

Other than general information, why am I posting this? The dissent is brutal. Brutal - on a personal level, on the legal merits and on the facts. It makes the majority opinion look even worse than originally thought. It is worthy of the book thread. It even has its own docket entry (for reasons). I believe an appeal is skipping the 5th Circuit and headed to SCOTUS. Stay tuned.

Venus Hum and some guys in blue paint for the big ONT finish with the nod to Donna Summer from 1978:

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking ?? This ONT was not re-imagined by Ken Burns. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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