November 18, 2013: Today is Mickey Mouse Day, marking the day back in 1928 when our favorite rodent first appeared in Steamboat Willie. And it was also on this day, back in 1963, that the first alternative to rotary dial phones came out, also making this Push-Button Phone Day. It’s hard to believe there are adults alive today who have never used a rotary phone; they really were cool, in their way.

This Mickey phone, by the way, was the model we had when I was growing up. And I thought it was the bee’s knees. When I first came here to Florida, and entered my first office building as an employee of the mouse, the reception area had the exact same phone. I thought that was pretty darned cool.