The Right Handed 'Whack?

You know, not enough to break anything, just a nice solid whack. (I still do it and half the time it works) Do you occasionally whack or 'thump' some of your things to get them working? BYE!

Asked by Oldtechnohobbiest 51 months ago Similar questions: Handed Whack Consumer Electronics.

I haven't had to 'whack' anything for quite some time. However, that used to be a fix for the TRS-80 aka "Trash 80," that came with my job some years ago. Periodically the computer would wander off into an endless do loop.

Whacking it on the top left of the monitor invariably fixed the problem. When my parents were still in their non-cable house, my Dad used both the whack and the antenna adjust to get the best picture. A year and a half ago they moved to an apartment that has cable and so they no longer whack.My son whacks his yard equipment, but I haven't noticed any of the small engines responding.

He usually ends up taking it apart and then I take all the parts in an old box to the nearest repair shop. Sources: My Opinion .

I still do it also... and it does work sometimes ... or, and I only use it now if all else has failed, it makes me feel better. Most of the time, modern appliances and gadgets are not meant to be repaired, but abandoned/replaced, so what the heck, it might work. It worked fine back in vacuum tube days when possibilities included loose connections, shorts, and 'hung' components... The most egregious example of a 'right-handed slap' I can remember was at NASA during the moon program.

I was across the street from Mission Control at the Manned Spacecraft Center listening to an astronaut named Bean exit the spacecraft with a brand new six-million dollar color camera. He fired up the camera and it went dead. Then there was the sound of tapping.. a very nervous RCA engineer enquired what the sound was and the Astronaut, obviously the same generation as the Oldtechnohobbiest and myself, said that he couldn't get it to work so he was tapping it with his rock hammer (the "right-handed" slap).

Turned out he had pointed the camera at the sun when he uncapped it. The engineer had some colorful things to say at this point... disclaimer: this is about a forty year old story related from memory (I was listening to the audio feed) so if I have gotten anything about the incident confused, Apollo historians out there feel free to correct me.... Sources: memory .

Yes! Some of my things need that good, solid thump to be reminded about working. My fridge especially.It sometimes makes a whining noise if I don't beat on the closed door.

I really thought that basically everyone occasionally hit their electronics. They can be so frustrating and that whack a. Sometimes works and b.

Makes you feel so much better. We also have a few things back home that need the whack to work. I think it's really interesting that instead of getting new things, I especially, but the rest of the family to some extent, will learn how to hold something just so or hit it in just the right way to keep the one we have working.

Often buying a new one is fairly inexpensive, but if you asked me why I didn't I would probably say mine still works (even though it clearly doesn't).

Oh, yeah. Our first TV... took a whack like that to stop vertical crawl issues--and some in the family had a better whack than others! Just the right touch.

Of course, those days, we had no cable and got three channels: ABC, NBC, CBS. And it was a black and white, too. I was out of the house before we got color--but we were behind the rest of the world on that point.

That first black and white that I remember was in the 60's and 70's. And yes, I do administer whacks to equipment, still, and yes, it does work enough to reward me for doing it! .

Absolutely! I remember seeing my parents do it, and I remember doing it myself! On rare occasion I will give something a thunp if it's not working to my liking, but only certain things and only a very careful thump.

Thanks for the funny memory.

" "My sleeping patterns are out of whack! " "Who wants to play whack-a-kitty?" "Do you have anything that's been handed down for generations? " "Lindsay Lohan or Coutney Love?

Who's been more WHACK?" "Whack a Spammer" "What's a "nick-nack paddy-whack"?

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.