T-shirt cannons: had it not been for a 16-year-old Simpsons episode, we might only now have known of their existence.
So, needless to say, even if we had some level of awareness of these mechanisms capable of launching wearable projectiles over longer distances than can the average human arm, it had never dawned on us that some might deem it appropriate to employ them at a rally for a major-party presidential candidate.
Enter one Donald Trump, who spoke in Lakeland, among other places, Wednesday.
On the heels of a campaign stop in Ocala, the GOP presidential nominee stopped by a small airport on the outskirts of Lakeland, where thousands of enthused supporters waited for his private jet to arrive on the pavement outside a small airplane hangar.
As the outdoor rally venue filled up, and after Republican Congressman Dennis Ross stumped for Trump, the candidate's usual playlist blared: The Rolling Stones, etc. On the makeshift stage, two men in suits (campaign staffers, we're guessing, or really unlucky Secret Servicemen) used the cannons to launch pro-Trump T-shirts to the far-flung parts of the audience.
The crowd cheered as the first of two planes came in for a landing. It had a Trump/(Mike) Pence campaign logo on either side, and appeared to have been carrying members of the traveling press.
Moments later, a second plane landed, this one simply emblazoned with "Trump." The crowd went into a frenzy, intermittently shouting "Trump! Trump! Trump!" as they waited for the plane door to open.
At least ten minutes later, the plane door opened, and Trump appeared, wearing a white "Make America Great Again" hat. He descended the portable staircase and approached the podium.
It was his first rally in the Tampa Bay area in over a month, which means he hadn't seen everyday supporters in the flesh along the crucial I-4 corridor since before the second debate Sunday, just after decade-old audio of him making comments about assaulting women surfaced Friday — and before the first debate, which most agree represented a turning point for his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Although it's been a rough couple of weeks for the guy, and polling now suggests an easy win for Clinton, his supporters showed up by the thousands to cheer him on.
From the minute he began to speak, the bulk of his 50-minute speech was spent attacking Clinton rather than highlighting his own primary proposals. He noted that the Lakeland rally was one of multiple events he gave Wednesday.
“How many of these do you think Hillary could do a day? Maybe half?” he said.
It was clear the second debate was still on his mind. He doubled down on his threat to jail Clinton over, presumably, emails, if he were to be elected.
He also denied that he was invading Clinton's space Sunday night, though images of him appearing to stalk Clinton onstage as she spoke quickly turned into punchlines on the internet and late-night television.
“Believe me, the last space that I want to invade is hers,” he said, a line that won roaring cheers from the audience.
Periodically, the crowd broke out into chants. First, it was "Lock her up, lock her up, lock her up," originally made popular during the Republican National Convention via New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's speech on the second night.
Then, Trump did his obligatory calling out of the media corralled at the back of the audience, namely CNN.
“Without the press, without the media HC is nothing. She's nothing," Trump said.
Some flipped members of the media the bird, others shouted “CNN sucks, CNN sucks, CNN sucks!” A CNN reporter stood on the camera scaffold and shot video with his cell phone.
Moments later, it was the classic Trump rally refrain, “Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall!”
When he talked about his own policy proposals, he offered broad generalizations of what he wants to do, but few numbers. One number? His oft-spouted proposal to reduce taxes for many businesses from 35 percent to 15.
His positions on the environment and energy seemed to be at odds with each other.
On the Environmental Protection Agency, he said, “We want clean beautiful air and we want crystal clear water.”
But seconds later he seems to promise mining and consumption fuels would continue.
“We are going to unlock the 50 trillion dollars in energy reserves right here, under your feet in America,” he said. "This means many new jobs in Florida and across America."
It's unclear what exactly he meant, though Floridians may want to be reminded that certain interests are trying to open up the state to fracking.
The audience didn't seem to care about that, though, as evidenced by the dozens of plastic water bottles strewn on the ground in their wake after the rally. Although quite a few people did deposit their plastic water bottles in proper receptacles, the site was nonetheless left in disarray after Trump climbed back up those stairs and gave the crowd a final thumbs-up before the doors to his private jet shut and he was flown to his next destination.
This article appears in Oct 6-13, 2016.