Day 3: Lawn Darts

Lawn darts used to be OK, not to mention really fun. On December 19, 1988 the sale of lawn darts was banned in both Canada and the US. The month before the ban George W. H. Bush was elected over Michael Dukakis. Some pundits have speculated that the lawn dart issue put Bush over the top and marked the beginning of the end of backyard fun for North Americas.

In an attempt to lead american BBQ conversations away from the oil wars Bush redesign lawn darts in 1990 reassuring Americans that their new "Smart Darts" were extremely accurate and would result in less civilian casualties. The program was a failure and operation "dart distract" was abandoned forever.

Day 2: Helmetlessness

It used to be OK not to wear a helmet.

You didn't need to wear a helmet riding a bike and still don't if you are over 18.



You didn't need to wear a helmet riding a motorcycle in Canada until 1975.



Jacques Plante was prohibited by the NHL from wearing his practice mask in games.

It wasn't until Nov 1, 1959 (video) after suffering a serious contusion that they allowed him to temporarily wear his mask. Now only 50 years later they blow the play dead if a goalie looses his mask.

Luckily helmetlessness is a problem that solves itself not only by improved laws and safety awareness but also through the evolutionary pressure of natural selection.

Day 1: The Premise

This Blog will be simple. Maybe not simple to maintain for 365 consecutive days, but its premise is simple. Each day’s post will consist of an idea or actions or “standard of the day” that society, as a whole, has moved past and deemed no longer acceptable. A full 365 days of things that were once upon a time OK but are now no longer acceptable.

Smoking on airplanes was OK before Dec 18, 1989 (21 year ago) when smoking was banned on all commercial flights between Canadian cities.

I love this video from the CBC archives, the scenes of people actually smoking on airplanes looks completely insane now.