I have several humorous slide rule stories ... let's try one out:
Back when transistors were beginning to replace tubes, I was studying engineering at Case Institute of Technology and schlepping around a narrow Sterling Precision. I had to fulfil their Humanities requirements, and since I had sufficient musical background, I convinced them to allow me to take music theory and composition courses at Western Reserve University (Case and Western Reserve are now CWRU). My other classmates, every one a music major, regarded me with everything from thinly veiled resentment to mild amusement. One morning at 8:00am, after working late on Electronic Circuits homework, I went to conducting class and announced, "I'm still half asleep - does that make me a semiconductor?" Yeah, well, anyway, by the end of the semester the conducting class was practising with an orchestra at the Cleveland Institute of Music. When my turn came, I stepped onto the podium and, instead of my baton, whipped out the Sterling (with its slide taped in the extended position). The white plastic was quite visible and it actually worked well, but for some reason I received no invitations from any major orchestras, leaving me to a life of wanton instrumentation and control systems. Now, let me tell you about a piece I wrote for trombones (hint: what is the unique part of a trombone?) ...
(I actually did write the piece for trombones.)

Sent by GAS

The Slide Rule's Revenge
A requirement for a BS in Engineering from Case was the completion of a Senior Project, and I had decided to construct an electronic hand-held calculator.  This evolved into a device about the size of a textbook with two four-digit thumb-wheel switches for operands and a four-digit light emitting diode display for the result (it was thirty years ago, and the brand-new LED technology itself elicited many oohs and aahs).   The calculator still needed work, but it was performing the basic four functions correctly (later it also took square roots and natural logarithms).  I was demonstrating it to a classmate, explaining that one still had to determine the location of the decimal point as with a slide rule, when a resounding THWACK lifted us out of our chairs.  A red-faced student standing behind us had slammed his yellow Pickett down next to my calculator, and he yelled, "There!  That's all anyone will ever need!"  Then he deftly snatched the Pickett and, as if returning a sword to its scabbard, thrust it into his belt-hung case, spun on his heel, and stormed off.

I found out later that the old boy had been the victor in several slide rule contests, and could perform half a dozen chained calculations with a single setting of the slide; before his very eyes, I had been obviating his sole claim to fame.  I realized my good fortune that it was the poor table that had been bayoneted, and not my head ... so I didn't hold it against him (or Mr. Pickett). Having served its purpose, my calculator is long gone, but I'd bet that he
still uses a slide rule!

Sent by GS