- There used to be trash cans next to bus benches. Then some wily transit district bureaucrat realized that people kept putting trash in those cans. By removing the cans people would throw their trash into the gutter, onto other people's lawns or on the steps of their businesses. The trash magically became Somebody Else's Problem.
- The phrase 45 single did not refer to middle-aged dating problems or antique guns but to some fine acid-rock music.
- If you went on a wilderness trek you needed to bring maps, a compass, and a modicum of common sense. If you got into trouble you needed to use your wits to get out alive. Nowadays all you need is a cellphone with GPS. If you stub your toe you can call in a rescue helicopter to your exact coordinates at taxpayers expense.
- Speaking of cellphones....Remember when, if you want to get away from it all for a while, you could go for a walk secure in the knowledge if the phone rang you would not be there to hear it. (Cellphone-free for 56 consecutive years)
- Speaking of trekking....Remember when the North Pole was some dangerous, ice-filled hell where only the most reckless adventurer would venture. Now it is just a place where someone took a summer kayaking trip.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Curmudgeonly Musings
Remember when....
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2 comments:
'has been always thus'
I admire the clarity of the Sierra Club outing rules:
No guns, no dogs, no radios.
Of course, I'm a simple-minded person, despite my peers telling me that automatic dishwashers and powered snow blowers are great improvements to life, I use arm-strong methods.
(and with another 6 inches of snow in the last two days, I've been using the shovel.
I've done backpacking in the back country of Denali National Park and all I had was a compass and a topo map. It would have been nice to have a GPS, especially the last time when I forgot the topo map for my zone in the motel and had to guide my nephew by dead reckoning based on what I remembered from the night before (I put us right where we wanted to be, though).
I've backpacked some remote places and it isn't that hard to find your way to a spot when you have an idea what you're looking for, but a GPS would be a fine thing to have. Cell phones, however, are awful.
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