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

Sword and sorcery fantasty - phewy. Now good fantasy is... well, I notice that you haven't got a single copy of 'Howl's Moving Castle' in your library. My disapointment knows no bounds. Now you know why I haven't come to Webb City yet.

Now you know why I don't have it in the collection.

Things to grumble about when you get older:
a You come up from a night dive on the wrong anchor and grumble about having to swim to the right boat.
b Restaurant service and the quantity and quality of the food.
c The complexity of wiring and operating VCRs (or should that be DVDs now?)
d The deterioration of the SF genre since the "good old days".
e Medicare prescription plans
f All of the above

To Hyp:

To Phred: Slow down, I'm taking notes.

Leo, will you be able to locate those notes when you hit the proper age?

Either it'll be easy because I keep everything or it'll be hard because I keep everything. One day I'm going to come up with a great cross-referencing system. Until then...

I hope *you're* jotting this down? You're far closer than I to the right age.

You'll have your chance to make your own list, Leo...but you have to imprint in your memory how wonderful things are now, so you can compare them to the dismal future versions that await you...

Life is full of tradeoffs. Some things about getting older are the pits, true. But other things are definite advantages. It all depends on your point of view. As long as you can stay relatively healthy, getting old isn't that bad.

Right. These are my good ol' days.

Now does that stink or what, since these are your bad new days? Can we then infer that the days just get worse and worse?

a You come up from a night dive on the wrong anchor and grumble about having to swim to the right boat.

But you finally have time to go diving.

b Restaurant service and the quantity and quality of the food.

It's true that our taste buds become less sensitive. So you can't tell the diference any more between a great bottle of wine and a merely good one. That's an advantage. Now you can order the cheaper one and have enough left over for a second bottle.

c The complexity of wiring and operating VCRs (or should that be DVDs now?)

This gives you an excuse to see your grandkids. You can call them to come over and set it all up for you.

d The deterioration of the SF genre since the "good old days".

True. But the books from the "good old days" are still out there waiting to be reread. and enjoued all over again. Especially since you will have forgotten some of the details.

e Medicare prescription plans

Remember all the places in the world where people don't live to be 65. Plus, this gives you an excuse to visit Canada more often.

f All of the above

Life is almost always better than the alternative.

oh no, you're not trying some of that positive thinking, are you? I reserve the right to be a grumpy old woman, thank you.

That's one of the major advantages of getting old. You can get away with being grumpy!

And you can get away with typos because you can always blame the arthritis in your fingers.

And you don't have homework.

(I shouldn't be here, but I was recently inspired to write about certain and imminent death A17216697 and couldn't get back to programming until I'd unloaded it.)

Funny! Good job.

Good night.

And if you see me around, send me away.

Go do your homework, Leo.

I finally made it to Happy Jack's, the 2ndhand bookstore, this afternoon, and I spent some time in the SF section having nostalgia attacks. Or looking disgusted at all the sword-and-sworcery [sic] stuff.
[it's my typo and I'm proud of it]. I bought two sf books but I don't remember what they are. One is by David Brin. The bag is in the other room and I can't be bothered to go look.

Sword & Sourcery is pretty bad. I don't know how it stays so popular. There is only one plot. Sort of like the bodice rippers. They keep writing the same book over and over.

Glad you mde it to Happy Jack's. Working in a library does have advantages. I don't have to haunt used book stores any longer. Which is a good thing since we don't have a single one here I really like.