Random Thread ～Owaranai Insomnia '25 ver.～

[Celedam]

It's too quiet in here, so…



Mine is Walter Cronkite ending each broadcast of the CBS Evening News (which my father watched almost religiously) by announcing the number of days that the Americans had been held hostage in Iran…



What's yours?

[Nayoko-Kihara]

Mine is probably 9/11. I remember hearing it first in my "how to use the internet" class with a teacher that always had a radio on, and a lot of students were pulled out of school very quickly. My mom thought about keeping me and my sister home for a few days after. That's the first time I remember watching anything on the news that didn't have to do with snow day closings.

[Shoujo Q]

Does the OJ bronco chase count? Because that’s the earliest one I can remember off the top of my head that isn’t 9/11.9/11 kind of trumps everything else in your brain by default if you were born before it (up to a certain point).

I also vaguely remember the Oklahoma City bombing but I don’t remember which came first. That or OJ.

[Zunu]

I distantly recall having to write a school report on the Democratic National Convention when I was like six years old and in the second grade. Having to sit there and watch it was the most boring thing in the world, and I had no idea what was going on. The report was supposed to be an entire page long so the thing I remember most is
w r i t i n g.....w i d e r......a n d...w i d e r
so.................. that..........each........line
n...e...e....d....e....d.........f....e....w....e....r
w...............o.............r..............d...........s.

[boinsie]

I also vaguely remember the Oklahoma City bombing but I don’t remember which came first. That or OJ.

OJ was first.
I remember those two things, but I also vaguely remember the Bush Sr. v. Clinton election.

[Moh]

I sort of remember 9/11... Only cause I was 6 and wondered why nothing else was on TV.
Kind of remember the 2004 elections, but only because my dad was very sick and thought all the headlines were written in Russian Cyrillic.

A more recent one that's stayed in my mind was Sandy Hook. I started crying as soon as I saw what was going on.

[Shoujo Q]

I need to point something out with that comic that I just noticed.
The Challenger exploded in 1986, I would have remembered that CLEARLY if it happened in 1995 because I was obsessed with NASA and all things space travel.
Also, Christa McAuliffe was BIG news because she was originally from Massachusetts and yeah, kids all across the country were watching because she was going to be the first civilian/teacher is space. (They have a building dedicated to her at my former college and kids have field trips ALL the time and it's pretty awesome.)
I was only 2 at the time so I don't remember it happening. But I remember there was an episode on Punky Brewster that was dedicated to it. So it's something I've always remembered but wasn't really witness to it and it hit close to home. Kind of like 9/11.

So, I'm wondering, was he trying to make a joke about the teacher showing an old clip and didn't tell the kids that the spaceship blew up?

[Celedam]

I need to point something out with that comic that I just noticed.
The Challenger exploded in 1986, I would have remembered that CLEARLY if it happened in 1995 because I was obsessed with NASA and all things space travel.
[…]

So, I'm wondering, was he trying to make a joke about the teacher showing an old clip and didn't tell the kids that the spaceship blew up?

Yes…

Hairy recalls the Challenger explosion, which occurred in 1986. Many schools allowed teachers to bring a television to the classroom to show their students, sadly unaware of the impending disaster the children would witness. However, Hairy remembers watching the footage in 1995, so Hairy's teacher was knowingly showing the students recorded footage of a disaster. Presumably, showing a number of young schoolchildren a traumatizing event led to the dismissal.

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2174:_First_News_Memory

That sort of humor is typical for xkcd.

[Shoujo Q]

I see and. Ha! They have a wiki to explain his comics. Fun.

[Celedam]

Some of them get technical. And some of them get very technical.