Word: super
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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What bounces higher than a bad check, picks up English faster than a Berlitz student, and drags kids away from the dinner table quicker than Soupy Sales? Super Ball, America's newest plaything...
...dark purple sphere about the size of a plum, Super Ball has already bounced into millions of U.S. homes, shows no signs of slowing down. McGeorge Bundy bounces Super Balls in his Washington basement, brokers on the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange throw them about the floor during slack hours, Manhattan executives dribble them on their desks, and kids around the country are bouncing them down sidewalks and school corridors...
...ball is super because it has more bounce to the ounce than any other in history. Dropped on a hard floor from shoulder level, it will bounce almost all the way back, continue bouncing for a full minute (a tennis ball lasts ten seconds). It has such friction that, given reverse English, it will change direction each time it bounces. Thrown forward, it picks up so much forward spin when it hits the ground that it leaps ahead with almost twice the speed on the second bounce...
Since then, inventing Super Ball games has become as big a fad as the ball itself. Little girls have taken to Super-Balling the jacks (it is hardly a contest), office workers place bets to see who can bounce the ball into a wastepaper basket, and skateboarders now bounce Super Balls as they roll along. Another popular game is giving the ball lots of spin, bouncing it against the wall, and seeing how many times it will bounce back to the wall before stopping. The unofficial record: five hits...
Building on Air. The effects of the interstate highway system have not all been beneficial. Many Main Street businesses in bypassed towns have dwindled. Railroad passenger traffic between cities connected by new highways has suffered a similar decline. Municipal revenues have fallen as the new super roads cut wide swaths across taxable land, though they usually bounce back as land values rise adjacent to the highways...