bigger than a breadbox?

[Murray]

For those of you not currently residing in Pugetopolis, we had a meteorite event two nights ago that has people here talking. Apparently around 2:40am a meteorite managed to make its way all the way through the atmosphere without burning up, creating a second long flash of light that lit up the night sky as if it were daylight. I, unfortunatelly, slept through the whole thing, even the residual sonic booms didn't wake me. But lots of people who were up and about, like delivery drivers, have described the event as 'a giant flash bulb going off'.

Anyway, local scientists are quoted as saying that by their estimates from the degree of brilliance, the rock was the approximate size 'of a computer monitor'. Which got me thinking, what if this had occured in the 50's? What would these scientists have compared the size to then? And then I thought, well a computer monitor is about the same size as a breadbox. What's a breadbox you might ask? My grandma had one in her kitchen, and I guess back then they were fairly common, homemakers would keep loaves of bread inside breadboxes. Thus evolved the common comparative "bigger than a breadbox", still in use, but poorly understood, even today. So my guess is that the 50's scientist might have suggested that this meteorite was the size 'of a breadbox'.

And everyone would have immediately understood how big it was. Interesting how our language evolves as our culture changes.

[ed9k]

You are dead on with this one Murr-Dawg! It is actually something that I hadn't given much thought to..........

The pictures on the news (from the surveillance cameras) were pretty intense.............

[enderzero]

Whaaa-happened?!?!

I didn't hear about this and chances are I was up at 2:40AM. I have even read the paper (or at least the A section) for the last few days. It would have been cool, and quite frightening, to see.

I, of course, have often heard and even used the phrase, "bigger than a breadbox," but I always thought a breadbox was smaller than a computer monitor. I pictured a breadbox (as I have never actually seen one) to be a bit smaller than a very small microwave. Are we talking about the same size here? Maybe I spend too much time around very large monitors.

[ed9k]

http://komotv.com/stories/31552.htm

[Murray]

cool, I don't think I can ever remember being referred to as 'murr-dawg' before...

Actually my grandma's breadbox was large enough to hold several loaves of bread, so it was larger than a small microwave. I'd put the dimensions at around 18" wide, 10" high, 12" deep. Maybe it was an especially large breadbox, I don't know. It was the only breadbox I've ever seen, so I don't have anything to compare it to. And she's not around to ask.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

have refrigerators in the 50's? hehe... My refrigerator is my bread box now because it makes the bread last sooooo much longer...

[spidermonkey]

I seem to recall seeing a breadbox about the size of a large microwave too.
If I had one now, I would probably use it to store any meteorites that I happened upon...