Look for some light snow showers or flurries Wednesday night into Thursday. Won’t amount to much but will be the entre for a short shot of Arctic air. Highs on Thursday will probably be in the low 20′s and will probably be in the morning. In general, expect temps in the teens with breezes making it feel much colder. Single digits on Friday will mark the end of this extended cold period. There will be a pattern change so after perhaps some snow early Saturday, we move above freezing by Saturday afternoon and then to the mid to upper 50′s by the first part of next week. It would appear that this persistent cold spree is done for this round.
On This Date In History: On this date in 1957, Wham-O came out with a new toy called the Pluto Platter. It had been sold to the company by Walter Morrison, who had invented the plastic disc with Warren Frascioni in 1948. Morrison called it the Pluto Platter, hoping to take advantage of the UFO craze going on at the time. In 1958, Wham-O changed the name to the Frisbee. Why is that you ask?
In 1871, William Frisbie of Bridgeport, CT started the Frisbie Pie Company. Some of of the local kids discovered that the pie tins would fly if tossed properly. For some reason, they would shout “Frisbie” as they threw it to one another. In 1967, Wham-O company designer Ed Headrick patented his new and improved version of the disc, which featured raised ridges for better aerodynamic performance. The craze took off from there and by 1977 the company had sold over 100 million units. Wham-O cashed out in 1994 when they sold the toy to Mattel.
Of course there has now been ultimate frisbee tournaments..that was a game invented by a high school kids in Maplewood, NJ and there is frisbee golf which was invented by Headrick.
It sounds like to me that Wham-O made all of the money and that Headrick cashed in pretty well himself. Frascioni bailed out too early and apparently didn’t get much. The kids who discovered the aerodynamic fun of the pie plates certainly didn’t get anything and I assume that the kids who invented ultimate frisbee were left in the cold. Nope…as is often the case, many are responsible for the phenomena but only a few profited. Perhaps the biggest loser was William Frisbie, who not only got nothing from the toy but suffered the indignity of Wham-O misspelling his name.
But I hear he made really good pies.
