What's something modern you won't miss when it becomes obsolete?

[2jakes]

And for the record, I'm right handed except when it comes to eating and playing the ukulele.

LizzieMaine playing the ukelele !

Now that is something I would really enjoy seeing, no kidding !

 

[LizzieMaine]

I refuse to play it until the hipster ukulele fad dies out. May Singhi Breen was not a hipster and neither am I.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Having just reviewed all Veronica's posts, I'm afraid I'm not seeing any instances where people were inhospitable or were giving her any kind of a hard time. Hudson disagreed with her about handedness in baseball, but he wasn't particularly disagreeable about it, and I was simply trying to pursue what seemed to be an interesting line of conversation. Ah well.

A bit of advice, if I may -- most of us here are exactly what we represent ourselves to be. We aren't playing games, we aren't assuming "internet identities" for the sake of messing around with the Crazy Retro People, and we really don't appreciate people who come along trying to do that, whether it's deliberate trolling or just somebody's misguided idea of "research." We have no way of knowing if you're telling us the truth, and frankly, I question whether you are -- if this is genuine academic research you're doing, it's difficult to see what the point is other than to prove a preconceived point. Which, as I'm sure you know, will not go over well when you're defending your dissertation.

And for the record, I'm right handed except when it comes to eating and playing the ukulele.

I was gobsmacked by how much time and effort this person apparently put in constructing this elaborate "Veronica" identity, especially the kind of biographical details that probably wouldn't occur to most people when creating a false identity.

 

[Big J]

LizzieMaine frightens me, but now I know that she has a disliking for hipsters, I feel warmer about her.

 

[Big J]

I was gobsmacked by how much time and effort this person apparently put in constructing this elaborate "Veronica" identity, especially the kind of biographical details that probably wouldn't occur to most people when creating a false identity.

Yeah, I'm suspicious, which I why I think we're owed an explanation.

 

[2jakes]

I refuse to play it until the hipster ukulele fad dies out. May Singhi Breen was not a hipster and neither am I.

Now I know I'm really old & very ignorant as well.

What is "hipster ukelele fad" & who the heck is May Singhi Breen ?

(I live in a cave...so be gentle with your reply !

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ok...now I know I'm really old & very ignorant as well...:eusa_doh:

What is "hipster ukelele fad" & who the heck is May Singhi Breen ?

(I live in a cave...so be gentle with your reply !

May Breen was a recording and radio star who popularized the ukulele as a recreational musical instrument in the 1920s. It's due to her influence that ukulele chords appeared on most sheet music published during the Era. She was married to songwriter Peter deRose, and appeared on radio with him doing musical duets in various daytime time slots for many years.

The hipster ukulele fad is the reason you see so many underfed white kids sitting on stoops and street benches strumming tunelessly. Although the other day I saw an underfed white kid strumming tunelessly on a zither, so that's good sign the ukulele craze has blown over.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

We'll never know.

I'm actually right-handed. And white.

I'm a graduate student doing research on internet groups. Of the fifty I've been monitoring for the past six months, this one is the worst. Only one person was genuinely nice to Veronica T.

Gotta love grad students. The world is their petri dish.

 

[Retro Spectator]

The disappearance of the phone booth. There is no way to call services outside of your home anymore, unless you use a cell phone. This makes no sense, since not everyone has a cell phone, and some people, including myself, despise cell phones and refuse to use them. What if you break down, or need to call the police? No phone booth in sight.

 

[St. Louis]

Naaaah, seriously, I work with grad students, and I can tell you that there is no possibility any advisor worth her salt would ever approve such an oddly constructed research problem. There's no way of documenting it, no way of duplicating or checking the results, no possibility of standardizing the research environment, and worst of all, the IRB (internal review board that monitors human subjects) problems are legion -- i.e., one can't simply make up a research protocol that involves living human beings, mess about with their social get-togethers, and then flounce away, and still call it research.

I was following this conversation & didn't weigh in b/c I have no real knowledge or opinion on southpaws, especially not right-handed ones.

I'd bet a month's mortgage payment that this was all made up to make everyone feel tewwibly sowwy for VT.

The modern thing that I won't miss when it becomes obsolete: internet trolls or sockpuppets. Which makes me wonder; was there a golden era version of something like that? I recall a "Confidential Chat" in the old Boston Globe, but that was always uniformly friendly and nice. Maybe anonymous advertisements in the Want Ads?

 

[2jakes]

The disappearance of the phone booth. There is no way to call services outside of your home anymore, unless you use a cell phone. This makes no sense, since not everyone has a cell phone, and some people, including myself, despise cell phones and refuse to use them. What if you break down, or need to call the police? No phone booth in sight.

You're not alone on this...

 

[LizzieMaine]

The modern thing that I won't miss when it becomes obsolete: internet trolls or sockpuppets. Which makes me wonder; was there a golden era version of something like that? I recall a "Confidential Chat" in the old Boston Globe, but that was always uniformly friendly and nice. Maybe anonymous advertisements in the Want Ads?

Confidential Chat had the advantage of being overseen by an editor -- there was absolutely no way Sally In Somerville would be allowed to bait or taunt Peabody Polly about her preference for lard-based pie crust because every letter sent in would go thru that editor first and any attempts at jackassery would be weeded out. People who complain we moderate too heavily here have no idea what the world used to be like.

Personal ads, of course, were a let-the-buyer-beware proposition, and they had a very dubious reputation right up until the Internet came along and kiboshed that whole line of business.

The closest thing to internet trolling that existed in the Era was listening in on the party line and hissing rude remarks during pauses in the conversation, or writing JOE IS A DOPE on the wall of a public toilet.

 

[p51]

Of all the forums I have visited, this one has the nicest people I have known on the internet. Loungers are much more polite than the people on other forums I have visited, and don't have a tendency to swear in every post they make. They aren't rude, and they love to help other each other.

I agree, this and the G503.com WW2 Jeep forum are two of the nicest forums I've ever been on...
:eusa_clap

 

[p51]

The disappearance of the phone booth. There is no way to call services outside of your home anymore, unless you use a cell phone. This makes no sense, since not everyone has a cell phone, and some people, including myself, despise cell phones and refuse to use them. What if you break down, or need to call the police? No phone booth in sight.

We had an ice storm in 2012, nothing worked. The power went off everywhere in the county, and all the cell towers iced over. But I was able to call the power company from our land line that I refuse to get rid of (in spite of several attempts by my wife).
There's a pay phone at a local gas station, the only one I know of in the area. After everything was over and life returned to normal (some folks didn't get the lights back on for over a week), I went into that gas station for something and I overheard them talking about that pay phone. One said there'd been a line at the thing all day and night for about 3 days, because nobody could get through to anyone on their cell phones!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Naaaah, seriously, I work with grad students, and I can tell you that there is no possibility any advisor worth her salt would ever approve such an oddly constructed research problem. There's no way of documenting it, no way of duplicating or checking the results, no possibility of standardizing the research environment, and worst of all, the IRB (internal review board that monitors human subjects) problems are legion -- i.e., one can't simply make up a research protocol that involves living human beings, mess about with their social get-togethers, and then flounce away, and still call it research.

I was following this conversation & didn't weigh in b/c I have no real knowledge or opinion on southpaws, especially not right-handed ones.

I'd bet a month's mortgage payment that this was all made up to make everyone feel tewwibly sowwy for VT.

The modern thing that I won't miss when it becomes obsolete: internet trolls or sockpuppets. Which makes me wonder; was there a golden era version of something like that? I recall a "Confidential Chat" in the old Boston Globe, but that was always uniformly friendly and nice. Maybe anonymous advertisements in the Want Ads?

"Research," trollery's new deux ex machina.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We had an ice storm in 2012, nothing worked. The power went off everywhere in the county, and all the cell towers iced over. But I was able to call the power company from our land line that I refuse to get rid of (in spite of several attempts by my wife).
There's a pay phone at a local gas station, the only one I know of in the area. After everything was over and life returned to normal (some folks didn't get the lights back on for over a week), I went into that gas station for something and I overheard them talking about that pay phone. One said there'd been a line at the thing all day and night for about 3 days, because nobody could get through to anyone on their cell phones!

This happens a lot around here in the winter, and after having neighbors trooping into my living room to use my phone the last big ice storm, I installed a wall-mounted phone on the front porch so that they can help themselves when they need to. And I've promised not to snicker at them when they find their wonderful devices don't work when they need them most.

I could've installed a payphone, but I didn't want to rub it in.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Even at a nickel a call you'd be rich in a matter of weeks.

 

[jamespowers]

This happens a lot around here in the winter, and after having neighbors trooping into my living room to use my phone the last big ice storm, I installed a wall-mounted phone on the front porch so that they can help themselves when they need to. And I've promised not to snicker at them when they find their wonderful devices don't work when they need them most.

I could've installed a payphone, but I didn't want to rub it in.

I would have installed a payphone but that is just who I am . 25 cents please.

 

[jamespowers]

Gotta love grad students. The world is their petri dish.

To quote a very intelligent person here---they have stayed at the fountain of knowledge so long that their brain has become water logged.

 

[Gregg Axley]

I would have installed a payphone but that is just who I am . 25 cents please.

I think you should install one in your house James, to recoup the expenses on your phone bill.
Like this one...