You know you are getting old when:

[Stearmen]

For a while. Some gas stations as well as some grocery stores, butchers, etc., resisted and were often fined.

There has been a respite over the last twenty years or so, and we are, measurement wise, bilingual in ways we wish we were in English and French language abilities.

Shops must measure in grams and kilos, but can show prices in both Imperial and metric (must show the metric). Packaging varies, but must have the metric info if nothing else.

In Ontario, we can buy milk in bags (4L total in three bags within a bag- don't ask - the old way was 3 quarts), also in 500mL, 1, 2 and 4 litre jugs/cartons, and of course butter in 454g blocks (i.e. exactly one pound). Everyone knows 250g is just about half a pound, 125g a quarter pound (roughly), etc.

Ask anyone their weight or height and you'll get feet/inches and pounds. Gas is currently 94.3 cents per litre, it's -2 celsius outside, and my house has 2,400 square feet of living space. My yard is 49' x 229', and it's about 6kms from my village to nearby Stratford, Ontario. All road signs (speed, distance) are in klicks/kph.

Wine is mainly 750mL bottles, spirits sometimes in metric sizes, more often than not though they are in odd sizes of mL, as they are in fact the Imperial or American measurements simply converted (i.e. a "forty pounder" - 40 fl oz bottle Imperial is 1.13L, things like rum, vodka and such).

A funny place indeed...

Down here, all our food items have the duel measurements on them!

 

[Edward]

It's a sore point with Europeans that you can actually buy channel tunnel tickets in America cheaper than you can on this side of the pond. Check with your travel agent. You don't have to go to France when using the tunnel, there's a direct service to Belgium too, and there's a great milliner in Belgium. (Esther.)

I didn't know that about the US pricing. In the past, I believe I found the Chunnel much cheaper than flying if booked early enough, though. Mind you, it's also worth it for the much lesser security hassle than you get with flying. These days I'll only really consider flying if it saves significant time. The security thing is just too much otherwise - especially when you bear in mind that prior to 9/11, being Irish, I was always the target for security and "random" searches. I'm no longer target group number one, and yet I still find it more of a hassle than it used to be... Still, I discovered a love of penny loafers through airport security, so it's not all bad.

It's my #1, followed by Goldfinger and Dr. No. After Goldfinger the gadgets took over and I've never cared for any of the post-Connery Bonds.

There are no post-Connery Bonds. After five attempts, though, they did find a reasonable tribute act in the form of Dniel Craig.

Canadian of a certain age reference: I remember when we went metric, and the fights over converting gas stations to litres. One owner went to jail after the Mounties kept locking up his pumps - and he kept breaking off the locks!

We had a few stories of similar holdouts over here, usually men who looked very much like they had a bitter Napoleon complex. Most people didn't really care. A lot of us were rather pleased to finally live in a world where we could actually use the metric system which we were exclusively taught at school. I'm very conversant with working between imperial and metric for lengths under about 1 metre, but weights I'm utterly lost on.

Beer is still in pints and half pints, thank goodness!

Mn. I never understoo the attachment to pint and half pints rather than 330mls and 500mls, or so. I get it if the switch were to be abused by retailers to jack up the price, but this romantic attachment to pints is an odd one, especially with the rapid growth in popularity of bottled beers (all in metric bottle measures). Beer all tastes like pee to me, no matter what you put it in.

 

[BobHufford]

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

There is a scene in one of the Bonds where Connery takes out a sentry fast, but w/o a kill, which was too nicely scripted.
Billy Jack featured Korean Hapkido to good effect, and An Officer and A Gentleman also showed Korean techniques, Hapkido or Tae Kwon Do.
A 60s private eye television show Peter Gunn usually had fight scenes involving the lead character and several opponents with Japanese style moves, Shorin, Shotokan, or Kyokushinkai. The Green Hornet with Bruce Lee showcased his own style, Jeet Kune Do, the way of the intercepting fist.

"You Only Live Twice," a late Connery Bond, introduced many Americans to ninjutsu, and to the really fast Japanese sword work that most had never seen. In those days, unless you lived in a city like Los Angeles with the old Toho and Kokusai theaters, you never had a chance to see Asian movies. Bruce Lee almost single-handedly dragged Americans into theaters to see Asian martial arts movies in the '70s.

 

[Harp]

"You Only Live Twice," a late Connery Bond, introduced many Americans to ninjutsu, and to the really fast Japanese sword work that most had never seen...

Connery served as a member of Mas Oyama's Kyokushinkai (my style) Organization as 007 struck gold in Japan.
The Ninja sword features less steel than the samurai blade and the bolt is squared for stepping upon, unlike the more traditional round bolt.
I liked Bond for the girls and he once remarked he "preferred a bachelor's freedom." A great line.

 

[St.Ignatz]

Driving past a local university with the usual swirling mass of students I realized both my jeep and cigar (a lost treasure) were older than nearly every person I saw.
Tom D.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Driving past a local university with the usual swirling mass of students I realized both my jeep and cigar (a lost treasure) were older than nearly every person I saw.
Tom D.

You're a rolling museum?

 

[Trenchfriend]

When you know, that you got absolutely no problem with biting on caraway-seeds in your meal, in compare to your child-days.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

People born in the 90's seem so young yet it was such a long time ago.

 

[Zombie_61]

People born in the 90's seem so young yet it was such a long time ago.

I knew I was in trouble the first time I inadvertently called someone "kid", then realized he was only 5 years younger.

 

[Stearmen]

I knew I was in trouble the first time I inadvertently called someone "kid", then realized he was only 5 years younger.

I have a friend who is 82 now, when I help him on one of his sidecar rigs, I will say, you did good kiddo! He responds with a big grin.

 

[Fading Fast]

People born in the 90's seem so young yet it was such a long time ago.

I am always shocked when I learn that an actor in an adult role was born in, say, '91 - until I reflect on the math, I think they should still be in school. My instinct is that "born in the '90s = kid in school / college, but not 'real' life yet." But I'm wrong and am trying to update my instinct.

 

[Trenchfriend]

25 years ago, quarter of a century!

 

[tonyb]

Anyone here well-versed in how the human sense of taste (as in food and drink and whatever else one might put in his or her mouth) changes with age?

I ask because I can think of a couple of foods that repulsed me as a youngster that I like just fine now (but only a couple, I've never been a picky eater) and some that appealed to me then that seem just so insipid now, such as sweets that got nothing going for them but sweet.

I suspect it changes some around puberty. Swiss cheese actually pained me when I was a little kid. It stung. It hurt my mouth.

A simple and probably accurate answer is that kids crave highly caloric foods because they are growing and that for most of human history, when food was not so readily available as it is in the modern industrial world, such preferences were necessary to survival, for the individual and the group. But I'm curious as to the mechanism.

 

[EngProf]

Anyone here well-versed in how the human sense of taste (as in food and drink and whatever else one might put in his or her mouth) changes with age?

I ask because I can think of a couple of foods that repulsed me as a youngster that I like just fine now (but only a couple, I've never been a picky eater) and some that appealed to me then that seem just so insipid now, such as sweets that got nothing going for them but sweet.

I suspect it changes some around puberty. Swiss cheese actually pained me when I was a little kid. It stung. It hurt my mouth.

A simple and probably accurate answer is that kids crave highly caloric foods because they are growing and that for most of human history, when food was not so readily available as it is in the modern industrial world, such preferences were necessary to survival, for the individual and the group. But I'm curious as to the mechanism.

I also request actual/factual information on taste changes with age. I am in my late sixties and am now eating and enjoying things that my mother could never force me to eat. I am losing interest in other things that were once favorites.
(I thought it was just me...)

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I can remember as a child being repulsed by strong-tasting, spicy or vinegary foods. If my parents brought home a pizza the smell would literally drive me out of the house. I liked only bland foods and sweet stuff. Then, somewhere in my latter teens, it was like someone flipped a switch. I no longer wanted sweets, vinegary stuff like salad dressings suddenly tasted good, and I discovered pizza was ambrosia. I suppose it was one of many changes that comes with adolescence when your body turns into a chemical and hormone factory and everything changes.

 

[GHT]

Anyone here well-versed in how the human sense of taste (as in food and drink and whatever else one might put in his or her mouth) changes with age?

One thing that I could never get a flavour for and that's tea. And for a Brit, that's bordering on heresy. Some foods can trigger migraine, my doctor explained this to me after I had told him about my migraine headaches, following an insurance medical. He suggested writing down everything that I had eaten, even if it's something innocuous like a toffee. It still took forever before I realised that mustard was a prime suspect. So is red wine, but I can live with that.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

There is an entry in Samuel Pepys's "Diary" from the mid-17th century in which he mentions going to party where "Tée" which he defines as "a China drink"is served. You realize then that Pepys belongs to the last generation of Englishmen for whom tea is not yet a way of life.

 

[tonyb]

I can remember as a child being repulsed by strong-tasting, spicy or vinegary foods. If my parents brought home a pizza the smell would literally drive me out of the house. I liked only bland foods and sweet stuff. Then, somewhere in my latter teens, it was like someone flipped a switch. I no longer wanted sweets, vinegary stuff like salad dressings suddenly tasted good, and I discovered pizza was ambrosia. I suppose it was one of many changes that comes with adolescence when your body turns into a chemical and hormone factory and everything changes.

Gotta wonder if the juvenile human's sense of taste defaults to a "better safe than sorry" mode. Kids reflexively spit out safe but "hot" foods. It's an unconscious response. Anything that burns that much must be bad for you, right? Same with pungent foods, I'd imagine, hence your childhood aversion to vinegar.

 

[vitanola]

25 years ago, quarter of a century!