When was the past better than the present? I'd like to know the word or phrase that describes the romanticism people have of the past, e.g. "In those days, children respected their elders!". I was watching the documentary Born Rich and Cody Franchetti mentions that the encyclopedia was better in the early 20th century. Why? This feeling that "old ways are better" is not exactly nostalgia, because often people expressing this sentiment didn't actually grow up in this utopian past. But their feelings toward this time are exactly like nostalgia. [more inside]
posted on May 6, 2008 - 16 answers

How can I make elementary school spaghetti sauce? [more inside]
posted on Apr 21, 2008 - 17 answers

Define "home." [more inside]
posted on Apr 10, 2008 - 46 answers

I'm a child of the '80s, and I loved the '80s. However, I didn't develop a sense of good taste until about 1994, and as a result my pop-culture radar is completely jammed with crappy cartoons designed to sell toys, cereal commercials, and Ewoks. Can you recommend totally awesome movies/TV shows/etc. that will satisfy my '80s nostalgia, but are good enough to watch today? [more inside]
posted on Apr 3, 2008 - 73 answers

When will I stop thinking about my ex? She's starting to pop up in my cavernous head again. [more inside]
posted on Mar 27, 2008 - 13 answers

Movie on Disney channel in late 80s early 90s. Involves boy with crush on girl who turns out to have magical skills, she lives by a lake in cottage with her ?grandmother? who is a witch. Perhaps in England? Anyone? I picture the girl as having long dark, slightly wild hair.
posted on Mar 19, 2008 - 2 answers

yesterday, my neighbor was talking about that stuff we had as kids that was basically a little tube of awful smelling plastic gunk and a small straw. you put a glob of plastic on the straw and blew weird, oily bubbles. anyone remember what that crap was called? what was it?
posted on Mar 13, 2008 - 23 answers

OldMacFilter: I have fond memories of using a program called Studio/One on my Mac SE to generate monochrome bitmap art and animation. It was a straightforward, user-friendly program with a very solid System 6 vibe. I also seem to recall other programs from the same company - I seem to recall Studio Eight and Studio 32 as being the other products. My question is, where could I find more information about this wonderful program, to fill my nostalgia for old-school Mac-ness? What company made it, and how could I most easily create animations similar to what it produced? And what were Studio Eight and Studio 32 like? Does anyone else remember this stuff?
posted on Mar 4, 2008 - 7 answers

I'm looking for a XP-friendly version of the old "virus war" games. [more inside]
posted on Feb 9, 2008 - 10 answers

I'm looking for a very specific (Fisher Price?) record player from my childhood. [more inside]
posted on Jan 28, 2008 - 2 answers

Were produce and meat really better in the old days? How can we be sure? [more inside]
posted on Jan 26, 2008 - 42 answers

My geometry teacher in high school in 1984 showed us this puzzle. I was only half paying attention, but I believe the goal was to draw a line that intersected each segment only once. [more inside]
posted on Jan 6, 2008 - 14 answers

Help me identify this UK children's book about a sea monster kept in a house! It's not The Water Horse! [more inside]
posted on Dec 28, 2007 - 10 answers

Childrens' book filter: I'm looking for a story about a mole, in which he tries to escape from a digging machine. [more inside]
posted on Dec 23, 2007 - 3 answers

In the early 1980's there was a pizzeria/bar near Goshen, Indiana called Das Keller that was in an underground bunker... [more inside]
posted on Dec 3, 2007 - 7 answers

On a whim my girlfriend started us watching the 90's cartoon series Gargoyles together. For some bizarre reason this has turned into a fun little bonding ritual. Unfortunately we've almost reached the end of Season Two: Volume One, which is all that has been released on DVD (When's the rest coming out?). What should we watch next? She had the idea to watch the old X-Men cartoon series. What other retro shows have a little bit of that little kid fun, and a little bit of all-ages appeal?
posted on Oct 16, 2007 - 49 answers

Last weekend I saw Darjeeling Limited. While the movie was okay, I absolutely loved one of The Kinks songs featured in it, "This Time Tomorrow." Can anyone recommend other songs by other artists that have that same big, happy, melancholy mix? [more inside]
posted on Oct 11, 2007 - 21 answers

Where can I find lists of the most popular Spanish top 40 music from summer, 2002? [more inside]
posted on Oct 10, 2007 - 4 answers

So, my father has a ton of old (50's-60's) baseball/football/collector cards and is nearing retirement. I'd like to help him sell them. I've a lot of questions here. [more inside]
posted on Sep 4, 2007 - 10 answers

What should I put in a time capsule for my daughter? [more inside]
posted on Jul 13, 2007 - 27 answers

NostalgiaFilter: Early nineties kids show in which the kids ran the cameras, the sound booth, and possbily sang? Possibly on Saturday mornings on PBS? [more inside]
posted on Jul 5, 2007 - 17 answers

I'm looking for a table hockey game (rod hockey, not air hockey) that I played as a wee 'un back in the 80s. It featured a super-slick surface, 3D players, an electronic timer (and goal counter), and a behind-the-net left winger. [more inside]
posted on Jun 21, 2007 - 6 answers

When I was growing up in Russia, one of my friends had a nifty 2D console (at least NES-era, possibly better) that we played every now and then. In one of his games (a side-scroller), you controlled several humanoid cats, each with a different body shape, color, and speciality. I'm fairly certain that one of them could dig. [more inside]
posted on Mar 5, 2007 - 6 answers

I have one (color, custom diecut) sticker. I want to turn it into many stickers. The sticker places on the web are astoundingly not helpful for custom work like this. Should I be chasing down a local printer, and if so, which one? There's some additional complication, too. [more inside]
posted on Jan 31, 2007 - 14 answers

I'm looking for a sample pack of all of the words/letters/numbers/phonemes from a Speak n' Spell (and/or derivatives). I'm not looking for crazy circuit bent samples... just something I can piece together words/phrases out of. Surely someone has done this. [more inside]
posted on Jan 20, 2007 - 9 answers

For a friend: Name the heroine - similar (looking) to She-Ra but with a purple outfit. Hair: Black/Brown with purple in it. May have ridden a white horse. Help?
posted on Dec 18, 2006 - 12 answers

I have been searching and search for the "CHONs" movie that I saw as a student in biology class. It involved dancing molectules - Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen. The molecules were singing. Does anyone have a copy of this?
posted on Dec 2, 2006 - 8 answers

Is there a word for a sort of nostalgia or longing for the current moment? [more inside]
posted on Nov 13, 2006 - 14 answers

Help me identify a sad robot movie from the 80s. [more inside]
posted on Oct 1, 2006 - 12 answers

My girlfriend and I miss the countryside of upstate New York where we went to school. Specifically, we long for the region's excellent, home-made, freshly pressed, piping hot, unpasteurized [!] apple cider. We're now in New York City looking for that wonderfully nostalgic autumn taste. Where should we go?
posted on Sep 26, 2006 - 15 answers

More GameFilter: Looking for a C64 game where the players control one of three balls on a pool table and try to sink eachother. [more inside]
posted on Aug 28, 2006 - 11 answers

We are sending a capsule into deep space to carry a sample of America as it was in the 60's and 70's. We can include 12 CDs (or albums transferred to CD) to reflect popular music of the time (1960 through 1979.) What 12 CDs best represent what was happening then?
posted on Jul 28, 2006 - 26 answers

I saw this on here like two years ago but I can't find it now. Anyway, I'm trying to remember the name of these little television spots (it may have been a full show, but I don't thinks so) that featured a little yellow man painted on the side of a glass. It was for children. Anyone?
posted on Jul 21, 2006 - 11 answers

Help me find two toys from my childhood. [more inside]
posted on Jun 13, 2006 - 9 answers

Help a geek find a long-lost favorite childhood storybook/gadget. [more inside]
posted on May 27, 2006 - 4 answers

Looking for songs that have a wistful, bittersweet feel to them that captures the move from adolescence into "adult" life - eg the moments before leaving school, or before getting your first job. [more inside]
posted on May 11, 2006 - 97 answers

Where do I get the original Hang in There Baby cat poster? [more inside]
posted on Mar 2, 2006 - 3 answers

Help me identify this truly awesome toy I had as a child, a kind of transparency projector with groovy slides. [more inside]
posted on Dec 31, 2005 - 13 answers

I am looking for a certain children's tv program which ran on an unknown channel in the New York area around 1984 and probably elsewhere. [more inside]
posted on Oct 1, 2005 - 5 answers

Amiga game identification filter... [more inside]
posted on Aug 25, 2005 - 8 answers

I love the sound of the clarinet. I'm looking for quiet, pensive, possibly melancholic music featuring this instrument. Any genre; preferably instrumental. I'm not looking for happy big-band jazz or Poulenc's chaotic clarinet sonata, though I appreciate both. [more inside]
posted on Jul 16, 2005 - 28 answers

As a kid, I had a coffee-table size book of sci-fi paintings. Each page was ostensibly the specs and history of a given spacecraft, and the paintings were quite detailed and in the "realist" mode. As you read about each craft, however, a narrative unfolded about a galactic war. The story arc was sussed out in little details dropped about each ship, famous engagements it took part in, etc. The only ship I remember was an "enemy" ship, the Tarantula, which would ambush victims by hovering up out of a pit suddenly. Anybody know the title, artist or illustrator?
posted on Jun 13, 2005 - 34 answers

Anybody have a good prom story? Not limited to asking out dates.
posted on May 11, 2005 - 28 answers

Help Identify a Hip-Hop Sample. The artist is MF Doom, the album is MM...Food?, the track is "Kookies" (Amazon link; listen to track 15). I'm fairly sure it's from Sesame Street (or some other children's show, circa 1970s) -- if not the main theme, than an outro or something else. [more inside]
posted on Apr 30, 2005 - 12 answers

I'm trying to figure out the name of this one series of classroom movies that I remember from when I was a kid. They all begin with this guy singing a song that goes like, "I am the storyteller, and my story must be told," and then he goes on for a bit, talking about what names he is known as among different cultures, and he ends with "and in America, I'm John." They were all short films, probably 30-60 minutes in length, and usually fairytales or cautionary tales. I'd imagine that they were made in the 1970s or early 1980s, and they were on actual filmstock, not VHS or anything. I think they were all narrarated, and I am not sure if the actors themselves had any dialog. I remember enjoying these movies a lot when I was in elementary school, and would love to find out more about them. [more inside]
posted on Apr 17, 2005 - 6 answers

Back in the 1980s on Nickelodeon, a pair of cartoons - The Little Prince and Belle and Sebastian - that ran back to back (at least, in memory). I'm not sure either ever went to sindication in any meaningful way, so how am I supposed to get my hands on them?
posted on Apr 5, 2005 - 9 answers

Percussion Music LP of Childhood With Black Dots On Cover Filter. Recently, when my mom sold her house, I was sad to learn that she garage sale-disposed on an LP I was hoping to rediscover [+]
posted on Dec 31, 2004 - 12 answers

Any children of the 70's on board who remember those wacky styrofoam gliders shaped like hot dogs etc? A spoof on the traditional balsa wood version. Fuselage, wing and tail in a simple paper package. There were several different ones besides the hot dog.

I'm feeling nostalgic and Google's not helping.
posted on Oct 25, 2004 - 8 answers

What do you do with old t-shirts that, for sentimental reasons, you can't bear to part with?
posted on Jul 27, 2004 - 35 answers

I'm trying to write an essay on the current nostalgia for guilt-free (and information-free!) smoking, boozing and drug-taking and desperately need sources, whether web-based or bibliographical. [More inside.]
posted on May 5, 2004 - 16 answers