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August 1959 Popular Electronics
 Table
of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
Popular Electronics,
published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.
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You would be hard pressed to
find an electronics magazine today that included poetry as part of its typical features.
I have published pages from the ARRL's
QST magazine from the 1940s that
had poems. Of course, the theme of the poems is almost always humor or parody, but
poetry was not then as much of an unknown / unpracticed art by the general populace as it appears
to be today. Anyway, enjoy the jovial rhymes here from the August 1959 issue of
Popular Electronics magazine. Frequent comic contributor Carl Kohler provides the
illustrations for the rhymes of Saunder Harris.
Here are a few other electronics-themed poems:
A Radioman's Nightmare,
The Day Before Christmas,
Sonnet of a Ham,
Unpopular Electronics,
Ode to a New Rig,
Power Supply,
More "Tower" to You, Requiem,
Pre-Radio,
What Is It?,
Ravin
Other Carl Kohler masterpieces: "Live Wire
with a Loot Locator," June 1969, "The
Great Electron-Pedantic Project," "Dig That Reel Flat Response,"
"I Married
a Superheterodyne," "Unpopular Electronics,"
"Operation Chaos,"
"Thin Air, My Foot,"
"High Tide in the
Tweeter," "The
R/C Cloud," "Hi-Fi Guest List,"
"Kool-Keeping Kwiz
," "Boner Box," and "McWatts." Also, be sure
to read "Carl
Kohler's Life & Times per Son, Christoverre."
Unpopular Electronics
Poems by Saunder Harris
Cartoons by Carl Kohler
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Cornelius Cathode, electronics misfit,
Saved up his dough and bought him a kit,
Did away with instructions; "For beginners," said he,
"I know what I'm doing, just watch me and see."
He finished in jig time, plugged the thing in.
Smoke, fire and sparks burned off his smug grin.
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Percival Prod paid no heed,
To where he placed the meter lead,
To where he set the meter switch,
Red or black, no matter which.
Now pity poor Perc who repents his sin,
With the meter needle wrapped 'round the pin.
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Timothy Twerp was most astounded,
When what he thought was-WASN'T grounded.
In fact, one could say, he was really transfixed
With his thumb on pin 3 of a live 6L6.
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A wizard at wireless named Wallace McGee,
Never thought he'd be caught by the old FCC;
But to his surprise, they received him quite well.
Unlicensed, his choice was a fine or a cell.
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Posted May 30, 2023
(updated from original post on 1/23/2012)
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