Jim Ellwanger

@ellwanger.tv

391 Followers 305 Following

Fan of pinball, radio jingles, passenger trains, and many other forms of recreation, communication, and transportation. He/him.

*THIS AWARD GOES TO* JIM ELLWANGER FOR Season 62 High Score: Tales of the Arabian Nights (20,546,460) Presented by The LA Pinball League Date 7/21/26
2017 Nebraska statehood stamp - a photograph of a flock of sandhill cranes above a river at sunset.
"Nebraska Statehood 1867-1967" U.S. stamp (from back when stamps were 5 cents) depicting a bull in front of an ear of corn.
A postage stamp of the Andrew Wyeth painting "Young Bull," depicting a bull standing next to a stone wall and gate downhill from a 3-story house
"Politics: Kash Patel Calls For Public's Help Using Computer"
Screenshot from the Untappd app showing six different breweries with a hazy IPA named "Hazed and Confused" (scrolling down in the app, there are many, many, many, many more of these).
Newspaper headline "SMELLEVISION REPLACES TELEVISION!/Carl Stalling sez, 'It will never work!'" (From the 1944 Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd cartoon "The Old Grey Hare")
"The Nice Price" sticker on an album.
Ticket to a Yankees-Devil Rays game at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, July 8, 2004.
Brian Anderson (the Brewers/Turner Sports announcer) in the same broadcast booth as Brian Anderson (the Rays color commentator), temporarily.
Page from the September 21, 1974, issue of TV Guide, featuring a half-page ad for ABC's Saturday morning lineup, which they're calling "Funshine Saturday" this year. (The ad only includes the shows that were new in 1974-75: Hong Kong Phooey, The New Adventures of Gilligan, Devlin, Korg: 70,000 B.C., and These Are the Days.)
Fried Twinkie, drizzled with jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar
As drawn by Don Martin, one man sitting at a table looking at a newspaper says to another man who's stirring coffee in a percolator, "It's so obvious that the gorilla-suit manufacturers invented this holiday just so they could sell more of their lousy products!!"
News story about a bicentennial time capsule being opened, with the sentence, "Additionally, the capsule included a phone book that revealed Orlando had the area code '305' in the mid-1970s."
Grove pitching to Groover in the Tampa Bay Rays-Arizona Diamondbacks game.
The cast of the sitcom "Andy Richter Controls the Universe"
Me standing in front of a railing at the Grand Canyon. I'm wearing a red T-shirt and blue jorts. I still dress this way, 30 years later.
Bowl of "5-way" Cincinnati chili that I ate at Blue Ash Chili on July 22, 2016. ("5-way" means chili, spaghetti, cheddar, onions, and beans.)
Me, wearing a "Mystery Science Theater 3000 The Movie" T-shirt, standing next to the "Best Brains, Inc." sign in a nondescript business park in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Comic panel with the dialogue "If you think *I'm* doing what it says in your *stupid* future letter, you've got another think coming!"
Poster for the movie "Stop! That! Train!"
Email from the concessionaire that runs stuff at Gateway Arch National Park, asking me to take a survey about my "recent visit."
The water tower at Paramount Studios. (You can tell this is an old picture because it says Paramount is "A Viacom Company" - I happen to know the water tower has been repainted to say "A Skydance Corporation.")
Job posting lists the location as "Nationwide"
AMC Theatres app says “You are now in line. The line is paused.”
Supermarket egg salad sandwich in plastic container. Originally $7.99, reduced to $3.60. The sell-by date is tomorrow.
Entrance to an empty former Sears store.
Manhattan below 42nd Street, as depicted on the official New York City subway map.
Southern California Googie-style diner with a big sign: "Bob's Big Boy/Original Double Deck Hamburger"
As seen on Google Maps, a narrow strip of area that's within Chicago city limits, just east of one of the O'Hare runways.
Form on an online job application that asks for GPA. I've entered 3.3, a perfectly normal grade-point average. The form is displaying an error message: "Answer must be a valid number (no decimals)."
ESPN headline on Apple News: “Tigers place reliever Brant Hurter on 15-day injured list”
Screenshot of a circa-1969 commercial showing a Pan Am jet in the air, with the text "Pan Am makes the going great."
Line score: Rays 16, Orioles 6, in a mere 9 innings (unlike the Mets, who needed to score 10 in the top of the 12th to reach 16 runs)
Exterior shot of Rogers Centre, as seen at the beginning of a Tampa Bay Rays broadcast. (Contrary to the body of my post, though, the roof is actually closed, so Matt and Jay won't be able to get inside.)
On "Hacks," the characters Deborah and Ava look at a blown-up TV Guide cover with large text reading "WHO'S MAKING DINNER," part of an exhibit of memorabilia for what was, in the universe in which "Hacks" takes place, a very popular sitcom circa 1976
"Peanuts" comic strip for April 13, 1960. Linus is holding a book and says to Charlie Brown, "I did it! I walked right into the library, and I took out a book!... There was nothing to it! In fact, on the whole, it was a rather pleasant experience... Yes, sir, a rather pleasant and enjoyable experience... I'm still quite young, you know... I may even take out another book sometime!"
Google Street View of a portion of beautiful downtown Burbank, California, showing a parking garage at left, a Sears store in the middle, and an AMC-labeled building at right.
Black-and-white photo of the Iowa City Public Library building that opened in 1981, a brick building on a brick-paved pedestrian mall of the type that a lot of cities built in the 1970s.
Email from Indeed listing the job title as "Technical Writter."
Charlie Brown holds up a leash and says to Snoopy, "This is called a leash... When the master and his dog go for a walk, the leash is attached to the dog's collar... Okay, let's review what we have just learned... What is this called and how is it used?" Snoopy responds, "I don't have the slightest idea."
The version of the Seinfeld logo that debuted in the fall of 1991, which, like the McHoagie logo, is red text overlapping (not entirely contained by) a yellow oval
SpotHero map showing parking prices that range from $102 at transit stations near the stadium, to $59 in the San Fernando Valley. (To be fair, these each include up to 4 round-trip express bus fares.)
Graphic on the Tampa Bay Rays TV broadcast, advertising the team's 50/50 raffle, says "ENTER TO WIN CURRENT THE JACKPOT"
My email inbox, showing 10 identical emails sent between 7:08 A.M. and 8:09 A.M.: "Next Steps: Proofreader/Hello Jim, Our affiliate firm is currently hiring a Proofreader. This position was posted on LinkedIn, and we are managing applicatio..."
Older Apple Jacks box on which the mascot was a red apple wearing a little felt hat, with a cut-out smile and eyes made out of two individual Apple Jacks pieces
1970s/1980s Apple Jacks box with what are supposed to look like children's drawings of a boy and girl - he's doing a handstand to try to impress her, but she only has eyes for the cereal.
In the main rotunda entrance to Tropicana Field, for people to see as they're leaving, are ads for the Rays Radio Network and its flagship station WDAE saying "Listen on Your Way Home!" The ads show the frequency as 95.3, but WDAE moved to 95.7 in February.
Tampa Bay Rays pregame hosts Rich Hollenberg and Doug Waechter are both wearing a necktie that's patterned with the Rays "sunburst" logo.
Major League Baseball logo with the logos of the teams behind it, but more importantly for purposes of this post, a "KNBC Los Angeles" station identification superimposed at the bottom.
Sign pointing to various 100th-anniversary exhibits at the Los Angeles Central Library, using 1920s-style "Art Deco" lettering, including fancy slanted S's.
"July '83" typed twice, once with an "open apostrophe" (incorrect) and once with a "close apostrophe" (correct)
A squirrel, upside-down, hanging onto the sliding screen door that leads out to my apartment balcony.
On the side of an old train car with rust around the rivets is a decal depicting a cartoon South Shore Line train with a smiling face, and the slogan "The Little Train That Could"
A plate of famous St. Louis delicacy toasted ravioli (which is actually fried)
Betty White holding a black cat that appears to be rubbing its face against her cheek
Sign next to a display of bananas in a supermarket checkout area: "The U.S. Treasury has stopped production of pennies, which is now impacting supply. If using cash for payment, please consider providing exact change. We appreciate your understanding. Thank you for shopping with us. [Kroger "shopping cart" logo]"
Box for the game "Go to Hell!" by Ideal, with the tagline "Move the pegs to send your character straight to hell!", showing an illustration of a delighted boy doing just that. (This is from a 2019 gallery exhibit of physical items created by Obvious Plant.)