Your Most Disturbing Realizations

[Trenchfriend]

High-aged people here in Germany often said: In this age, you got no longer heat.

It's more funny with german dialects...

 

[tonyb]

High-aged people here in Germany often said: In this age, you got no longer heat.

It's more funny with german dialects...

The late Gore Vidal observed on the occasion of one of his later birthdays that among the few benefits of advancing years is becoming free of the "tyranny of the male libido."

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Freshmen starting high school this year will learn about 9-11 as a historic event that happened before they were born.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I thought of that yesterday when I hired a kid who was born in 1999. She'll be the first kid we've had here who has no memories of the 20th Century.

 

[Trenchfriend]

It certainly is for my wife. She loves to dance.

On a semi-related note, sometimes I'm glad I have a bad back and can no longer participate in some of the physical activities I performed in my younger days.

I'm actually listening and I guess, your wife will like it:

 

[Fading Fast]

For me, I feel the cliche "the days and hours drag, but the years rush by" can be so true. In general, I enjoy my days, but sometimes making it through a tough day or week seems intolerably long, but the seasons and years just fly by - heck, the summer is almost over.

That 911 is history to anyone is a show stopper - but there it is. That, as Lizzie says, kids born in the late '90s, some nearly 20 years old, have no real memory of the 20th Century is mind boggling.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I don't think it's just my imagination. I do believe that time is indeed speeding up.

When online, time seems to slow down yet in reality, it's accelerating.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

My mother was 79 yesterday & she said she isn't having anymore birthdays even after I informed her that the statistics prove, the more birthdays you have, the longer you live.

 

[2jakes]

My most recent disturbing realization.

I recently went to a AA meeting which now has many different topics.
I stood up and made the following declaration:

"Hello, I’m 2jakes & I’m addicted to the Fedora Lounge."


The applause and understanding was tremendous.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

High-aged people here in Germany often said: In this age, you got no longer heat.

It's more funny with german dialects...

Haben Sie kein Heisse?

 

[sheeplady]

Freshmen starting high school this year will learn about 9-11 as a historic event that happened before they were born.

We're starting to see a whole generation of individuals who will never know what it is like to wave goodbye to a loved one at the gate, yet alone have a last passionate kiss as they make the final boarding call.

Or what it was like to be able to fly without nearly being strip searched.

Think about all the ways our lives (in the US and many other countries) changed after 9/11. It's a defining moment in the change of a lot of our cultures.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I can remember in the '60s traveling by air from, say, Albuquerque to Dallas, or from Dallas to L.A. What you did was, you went to the counter and handed them your money. They handed you your ticket. You checked your luggage if you had any and you walked out onto the tarmac and boarded your plane. Sometimes I had a pistol in my carry-on. I never understood what a privileged life we had back then.

 

[2jakes]

Kids today will probably not experience going to the movie theaters
like the ones I remembered.

These palaces were very nice with statues & wall paintings
on different floors & balconies.
Some had ceilings that gave the illusion of being under the stars in
the evening with castle walls around.

Going in to see not only several movies but also a serial, cartoons as well.
If we arrived near the end of the first film we would wait in the mezzanine.
Or go to the candy counter, buy drinks & popcorn at affordable prices.

The usher would have a flashlight to show you the way.
I also liked that I could watch the movie as many times as I wanted.

I’m sure there are some movie houses that exist today.
Back then they were common everywhere.
I never thought much about it then like I do now.

 

[Zombie_61]

I'm actually listening and I guess, your wife will like it:

I'm sure she knows that song far too well, and has probably danced to it on a number of occasions.

We're starting to see a whole generation of individuals who will never know what it is like to wave goodbye to a loved one at the gate, yet alone have a last passionate kiss as they make the final boarding call.

Or what it was like to be able to fly without nearly being strip searched.

Think about all the ways our lives (in the US and many other countries) changed after 9/11. It's a defining moment in the change of a lot of our cultures.

The sad thing is that it's only the illusion of security. We're not much safer than we were before 9/11, but the TSA and other agents are making a good show of it to make us feel safer.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

We're starting to see a whole generation of individuals who will never know what it is like to wave goodbye to a loved one at the gate, yet alone have a last passionate kiss as they make the final boarding call.

Or what it was like to be able to fly without nearly being strip searched.

Think about all the ways our lives (in the US and many other countries) changed after 9/11. It's a defining moment in the change of a lot of our cultures.

If there's one thing we can depend on, it's change. Another thing we can be sure of, man's propension for violence will always find a means of expressing itself.

 

[sheeplady]

The sad thing is that it's only the illusion of security. We're not much safer than we were before 9/11, but the TSA and other agents are making a good show of it to make us feel safer.

Security theatre.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Same reason banks made a point of posting uniformed, visibly-armed guards in their lobbies during the Depression. If John Dillinger showed up with a machine gun, Herbie Rentacop with his little .38 was going to be the first one down. But seeing him standing there made the depositors feel a little less vulnerable.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm sure she knows that song far too well, and has probably danced to it on a number of occasions.

The sad thing is that it's only the illusion of security. We're not much safer than we were before 9/11, but the TSA and other agents are making a good show of it to make us feel safer.

Agreed. Another chance of a tactically similar-to-9/11 attack was all but ended on 9/11 when the passengers on the plane that ultimately crash in the field in Pennsylvania - learning via cellphones about the other 9/11 plane attacks that day - attempted to re-take the plane form the hijackers, who, rather than lose control, crashed the plane.

That's the defense, now that "we" the public knows the attack strategy, it is all but useless. So, yes, while stronger cockpit doors, air marshals and flight crew training all make it nearly impossible to repeat the WTC attack, the passengers on the plane also serve as a strong deterrent.

The TSA stuff is probably mainly for show, but if we didn't do some kind of inspection, bad people would bring bad stuff onto the planes.

My memory is that from the time I've flown in the mid-'70s, we've been going through metal detectors. From TV shows and movies, it appears we weren't in the '60s. My even more vague memory is that it was bunch of hijackings that caused the change. Does anyone know more accurately when and why?

 

[LizzieMaine]

There was a wave of hijackings in the fall of 1969 -- five of them between October and December -- and then another seven in 1970, eight in 1971, and eleven in 1972. The stereotype that arose was that the hijackers all wanted to go to Cuba, but this was actually true in only a couple of cases. Most of the incidents either involved members of militant European, African or Palestinian groups or common criminals using hijacking as an easy way of extorting a ransom.

 

[HudsonHawk]

We're starting to see a whole generation of individuals who will never know what it is like to wave goodbye to a loved one at the gate, yet alone have a last passionate kiss as they make the final boarding call.

Or what it was like to be able to fly without nearly being strip searched.

Think about all the ways our lives (in the US and many other countries) changed after 9/11. It's a defining moment in the change of a lot of our cultures.

I travel a lot internationally, and the biggest difference between US airports and most international airports is at the US airports, the security is at the terminal, and everyone goes through the same long line and you can't get past the ticket counter without a boarding pass. At most international airports, security is at the gate, so you're only standing in line with those on your flight. This is not only orders of magnitude faster and more efficient, but your loved ones can still go into the airport terminal and wait at or near the gate. You only need a boarding pass to get on the plane, not into the airport itself. Flying in the US is so much more miserable than flying anywhere else in the world, and this is one of the many reasons.