Comments on: I'm the yo-yo man, always up and down...

I'm the yo-yo man, always up and down...

DragonBoy — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:57:36 -0800

It's National Yo-Yo Day!
Forget about all this satanic stuff, June 6th every year is National Yo-Yo Day (in the US) when children of all ages pull out their yo-yos and find internal happiness in the state of yo. The yearly day of recognition celebrates the birthday of of Donald F. Duncan Sr, the man who made the yo-yo popular in the US (You do know your yo-yo history don't you?). Of course, that isn't all that Duncan did in his life. He also founded the Good Humor ice cream company, invented the parking meter and made the concept of the premium incentive a popular marketing tool on top of founding the Duncan Yo-Yo Company.

On National Yo-Yo Day yoers celebrate their skill toy of choice, cheap or expensive, simple or complex, by doing tricks ranging from the easy to learn to the completely mind boggling.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:59:24 -0800

Word. Time to break out the freestyle I never learned to use. Thanks for the heads up!

By: NationalKato

NationalKato — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:00:06 -0800

Since I do not have a yo-yo at hand (for shame!) I will tie a small piece of string around my middle finger too tight and wait a few seconds for my finger to redden in honor of this day.

By: DragonBoy

DragonBoy — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:07:49 -0800

I've got my mini-motu on my finger today.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:12:26 -0800

Walk the dog for satan! That "mind boggling" link is... well, mind boggling.

By: Radio7

Radio7 — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:12:54 -0800

Grrr....I remember trying to use a yoyo once or twice as a kid. Couldn't get more than one 'yo', if you will.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:22:21 -0800

He invented the parking meter? How is he not the anti-christ? Got a yo-yo right here on my desk. It's a butterfly though.

By: edgeways

edgeways — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:36:03 -0800

The skilltoys.com site has awful copy editing. Even I am better at it than whomever did that site, and that's saying something. Outside of that, YAY yoyos!

By: WinnipegDragon

WinnipegDragon — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:58:39 -0800

So, I guess a bunch of Yo-Yo guys and gals need to battle it out with Slayer to determine whose day it really is?

By: pombe

pombe — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 13:05:22 -0800

This makes me nostalgic for my Tom Kuhn yo-yos. They were one of the best Xmas presents ever.

By: kosem

kosem — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 13:36:41 -0800

Earlier yo-yo post with some good technical yoyo discussion. Yo-yo trickery > apocalypse.

By: blackfly

blackfly — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 14:38:01 -0800

pombe: God Save Tom Kuhn! Yomega, and many others have taken off in his stead, but he was the one that brought the yoyo into its modern (and bad ass) form! Hurrah! My first was a no jive, then a mandala, then the Silver Bullet. I've got my anodized pink aluminum Zombie on my desk. . . I better start spinnin'

By: plinth

plinth — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 18:19:40 -0800

Don't forget that Duncan was also a brutal, brutal businessman. He trademarked Yo-yo and used strong handed techniques to push product. For example, he would send salesmen to toystores to buy a competitor's product and demand a receipt. In that day, the register receipt would not have the product name on it, so the salesman would complain saying, "this doesn't say what I bought" and the poor clerk would inevitably write down "yo-yo". The salesman would then demand the manager, saying that the clerk just comitted fraud, since he did not buy a yo-yo. Then came the choice: prosecution for fraud, or the store could exclusively carry Duncan Yo-yo's. They also routinely ran demonstrations and contests. No child was allowed to participate unless they had a Duncan Yo-yo, usually turning into several on the spot sales. Due to the wild success, Yo-yo was eventually deemed to be a generic and no longer a trademarked name. By that time, Duncan had sold enough Yo-yo's so that every resident of the US could own three.

By: sluglicker

sluglicker — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 19:29:48 -0800

In my opinion, any post that is 2 paragraphs is great.

By: grubi

grubi — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 05:39:54 -0800

Weird! There's a group of us at work (four of us) who, as a whole, have purchased and leave our 16 yo-yos* lying around for anyone's enjoyment. Although, we tend to be the only folks who dig on them. * Three are mine, including a Duncan FH Zero. We're big on the freehanders.