Do you remember toys from the times before plastic was readily available? Tin-toys were abundant when the space-age first dawned on humanity. One could purchase race-cars, wind-up marching pandas, hopping birds, robots, rockets and flying saucer tops. Imaginations that would eventually propel us beyond Earth's gravity were born thanks to these antiquated trinkets.
We recently played with one of the old flying-saucer spinners. Ingenious design: it cranks up with a vertical screw on top that also has a ratcheting function inside the craft. Let go after pumping the screw up and down while keeping the U.F.O. level, and off it spins. The particular model we were flying had small holes all along its outer rim. While the craft is spinning, these holes produce an eerie, low-pitched wavering hum that just whistles "messengers from the unknown, messengers from distant places".
Such a wonderful mix of Earthling and Extra-terrestrial, functioning as it does thanks to human ingenuity and the Earth's pull, while unfettering the imagination and allowing travel to other worlds.
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