What's in a name

If you'd tried to throw a Frisbee 51 years ago, you would have been out of luck. It had been invented - based some say on the Frisbie Pie Co. pie plate - but it was not totally aerodynamic - and it went by the name of Pluto* Platter. Toy company Wham-O Inc. successfully made it fly better and changed the name of the mini flying-saucer 50 years ago this week. Credit for the work was given to Ed Headrick, who died in 2002.
In an interview in 2001 (as reported by Reuters) Headrick acknowledged the special power of the Frisbee: "I felt the Frisbee had some kind of a spirit involved. It's not just like playing catch with a ball. It's the beautiful flight," Headrick said.
"We used to say that Frisbee is really a religion -- 'Frisbyterians,' we'd call ourselves," he said. "When we die, we don't go to purgatory. We just land up on the roof and lay there." Which may in fact be where part of Headrick is right now. Word was that after his death, it was planned to have Headrick's ashes moulded into a limited number of "memorial flying discs" which would be distributed to family and friends, and sold to help fund a future Frisbee/disc golf history and memorabilia museum.
* And speaking of Pluto, following its demotion from planet status a little while ago (read "too xxxx to look up when that was"), it has recently lost its status as "biggest dwarf plant" - a position now filled (not literally of course) by newcomer Eris.