h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Getting letters delivered before you left for work, 2 inches of cream at the top of the milk, standing with your mates to watch the match (and changing ends at half-time), buying a telly that lasted 20 years, cars made of steel not margarine tubs, margarine! not oxy-cholesty-omegy spreads, smoke at the pictures drifting across the projector.

Any other examples of the world going backwards?

internet dating instead of picking them up in bars?

True. Having to talk to people with chat-up lines instead of cut & pastes

I thought we had already a thread like this.

Ah, found it: F123393?thread=275347



Getting your letters delivered before leave for work is easy, all you need to do is leave later.

And finally I agree that margarine is a huge step backwards. What's wrong with butter?

I get my letters delivered straight to my computer, at all hours of the day. It's called email.

Email? Never heard of it. Then again, I never use the internet.

I'm generally of the opinion that things are better off the way they are now and, if people think otherwise, it's usually either because they don't understand the advantages of the current way or they don't remember correctly the way it used to be.

Yeah, whatever DID happen to the days of domestic abuse not being grounds for divorce and women not having the vote...

This wasn't intended to be a polemic about everything being better in the "good old days" Just a recognition that maybe *some* things were better before they were "improved".

Or, to quote a couple of examples from above: standing shivering on a concrete ramp to see two teams play football badly, or getting lung cancer from passive smoking at a cinema.

I have to admit that we don't do creepy, disturbing kids TV anywhere near as well as we used to.

>> Just a recognition that maybe *some* things were better before they were "improved".<<

Windows 3.1?

Appliances which were built to last, I may agree with you here.

Cars made out of steel, was that really better? (I have no opinion, even less an informed one.)

"Getting letters delivered before you left for work"

When you'd have no time to deal with them and would just have to stew on the contents all day.

"2 inches of cream at the top of the milk"

Or an inch of spit.

"standing with your mates to watch the match (and changing ends at half-time)"

Much better than a guaranteed seat?

"buying a telly that lasted 20 years"

TVs still last 20 years. It's just that after 10 years the one's you can buy for less than a week's wages are so much better than the one you've got you might as well chuck them away.

"cars made of steel not margarine tubs"

Yeah, those were the days, when cars killed pedestrians more reliably, killed their occupants more reliably, and were so heavy they'd only do 20 miles per gallon of petrol that belched lead into the air.

Whereas today pedestrians and crash victims lived where once they would have died, and I get 50mpg out of my big car and don't stunt children's growth.

"margarine! not oxy-cholesty-omegy spreads"

Yeah. Just gimme some fat. Don't for pity's sake cut it with anything that might reduce my cholesterol - I want to be dead before I'm fifty.

"smoke at the pictures drifting across the projector."

It's one of the great pleasures of the 21st century that you can now go out for a drink in the evening and come home NOT stinking of smoke.

Sorry SWL, I'm not in a great mood and forgot my which was intended. I knew that wasn't what you meant. think my bitter sense of humour just went bitter for a moment.

In fairness, central heating was pretty grim and jumpers were ugly even when I was a child. I feel *really* sorry for you oldies!

"standing with your mates to watch the match (and changing ends at half-time)"

Much better than a guaranteed seat? ----- Yes. If you wanted a guaranteed seat, you bought a ticket for the stand.


(cars) were so heavy they'd only do 20 miles per gallon ----- Morris Minors did 42mpg. The same as my (diesel) Astra. The same as the Prius I drove for a year.


Yeah. Just gimme some fat. Don't for pity's sake cut it with anything that might reduce my cholesterol - I want to be dead before I'm fifty. ----- why do you think the welfare state is becoming unsustainable

It turns out that margarine is really quite unhealthy, you're better off with real butter, or with one of the spreads that's been developed now with olive oil etc.

Honestly, Marge is about as bad as it gets when it comes to putting a fatty layer on bread to stop the filling from making the bread soggy.

Is it true that margarine in the US was coloured red/purple with dye by law?

I believe so. To make sure people knew they were eating things they shouldn't.

You might also note that margarine is, in fact, illegal to sell in the UK.

kids getting a clip round the ear from a copper and then a clip round the ear from dad when he finds out!

Vs

ASBO, and a criminal record