Things that quietly disappeared in the last 20 years

[Billy ray]

The original meaning of rawdogging

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I used to buy Uncut magazines every month which were great for films and music and they had a free CD with each issue which they called A Guide to the Month's Best Music with songs from the albums they rated the best from that month, it was great value.

They are still producing magazines but I got out of the habit of reading magazines and listening to CDs so I no longer buy them.

We have unbelievable choice now but there are definitely downsides to the death of physical media.

You’re not invested like you used to be.

TV series are the obvious one. If you went and spent $50 on a DVD box for the first season of a series, you were invested. Doesn’t matter if it was slow. You sat it out and got rewarded.

Now, if you’re not grabbed in the first or second episode then you flick to one of the other 10,000 series at your fingertips.

And that has impacted series built for streaming, they can’t spend as long in early character development or they’ll lose viewers.

The Wire is one of the best examples. It’s one of the top few series of all time. But there’s no doubt the first 4-5 episodes are slow as they lay the groundwork. After that it is solid gold, every minute of every episode.

 

[Plugger35]

Anthony Cumia talks about the scam with streaming shows, there is too much choice now where people switch between tv series.




Prior to streaming with all these platforms, people would just watch one series and stick with it for the whole series, not anymore.

 

[kickazz]

Anthony Cumia talks about the scam with streaming shows, there is too much choice now where people switch between tv series.




Prior to streaming with all these platforms, people would just watch one series and stick with it for the whole series, not anymore.

Yeah it's like Gordon Ramsay when he sees a menu with too much on it: how can any of it be good or fresh?

 

[Mofra]

Hard copy encyclopaedias. Whenever I had a question as a kid, my dad made me look it up in one of the Funk and Wagnells. Now my kids ask siri.

We had a set of Encyclopaedia Columbia as a kid. I spent hours looking things up in completely random fashion. I still remember the entries on John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

 

[Roobs321]

these were my cherished sets, must’ve read them a gazillion




as a result from early childhood (pre-school) I was super nerdy about the bible (especially kings of Judah & Israel), countries, their flags & capitals, and US Presidents & states. Also loved all those etched style drawings of biblical moments. That was a 70s ency set (obtained in early 90s), so it only went up to President Ford and was a little out of date, but it made me an atlas fanatic. I remember asking mum about Presidents since and she would mention and describe Carter, Reagan and (HW) Bush and I imagined them long before I’d ever seen a picture of them.

 

[Norwegian Blue]

Ah, Usenet. That's bringing back memories.

I only got off Usenet last year.

 

[Pistol Night]

The original meaning of rawdogging

Didnt even know there was one?

 

[Roobs321]

alfalfa sprouts, feel like they were more of a thing until 20+ years ago, more invisible in the culture nowadays

prepaid credit top up also seems less prominent, likewise the evolution in wired broadband modem/routers, as smartphone plans, roaming and home wi-fi setups sort of took over, depending upon ones circumstances and life stage. Likewise the shrinking presence of the landline phone.

 

[Billy ray]

Didnt even know there was one?

Dont google it on a work computer

 

[the_interloper]

alfalfa sprouts, feel like they were more of a thing until 20+ years ago, more invisible in the culture nowadays

prepaid credit top up also seems less prominent, likewise the evolution in wired broadband modem/routers, as smartphone plans, roaming and home wi-fi setups sort of took over, depending upon ones circumstances and life stage. Likewise the shrinking presence of the landline phone.

I never liked them anyway so happy for their demise, I sometimes have bean sprouts in a noodle soup though.

 

[Toump Ass]

And that has impacted series built for streaming, they can’t spend as long in early character development or they’ll lose viewers.

They also need to dumb down the shows because people don't have an attention spans anymore. The writers have to keep in mind most people watching their shows are probably doing other things like looking at their phones etc. which means they need to announce what's happening on screen if it's important etc.

The Wire is one of the best examples. It’s one of the top few series of all time. But there’s no doubt the first 4-5 episodes are slow as they lay the groundwork. After that it is solid gold, every minute of every episode.

It's been a long time since I read about it, but Season 5 was supposed to focus on immigration but they didn't have the time to write the series- authentic dialogue was going to be particularly problematic- so they focused on the media instead.

It's a shame, the Wire is fantastic but season 5 is a drop in quality.

 

[Chicago1]

alfalfa sprouts, feel like they were more of a thing until 20+ years ago, more invisible in the culture nowadays.

I get them every week instead of lettuce. Put them on my sandwich for lunch every day.


On SM-A135F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[rocker_oz33]

Local newspapers

Painting this weekend and could sure use some

Get some old sheets form vinnies.

 

[Syd]

Get some old sheets form vinnies.

Paintings done now.

Actually dug old sheets out of the wardrobe that the Mrs hasn't used in a couple of years and used those for drop sheets.

Followed the 'better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission' route.

Surprisingly Mrs S was unfazed.

Daughter is now decluttering and accesorising (new quilt cver sets, decorative pillows, etc.


1 room left to go now, 3rd bedroom/home office but needs stuff actually moved out of the room to be able to paint.
Then building in a desk.
Thats for another weekend

 

[rocker_oz33]

Paintings done now.

Actually dug old sheets out of the wardrobe that the Mrs hasn't used in a couple of years and used those for drop sheets.

Followed the 'better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission' route.

Surprisingly Mrs S was unfazed.

Daughter is now decluttering and accesorising (new quilt cver sets, decorative pillows, etc.


1 room left to go now, 3rd bedroom/home office but needs stuff actually moved out of the room to be able to paint.
Then building in a desk.
Thats for another weekend

Your been busy .

The linen press and dishwasher are no goes for me....

I wonder how much it costs to get someone to paint the inside of a house these days?

 

[Syd]

Your been busy .

The linen press and dishwasher are no goes for me....

I wonder how much it costs to get someone to paint the inside of a house these days?

Girls were still up the coast so the long weekend was long for me

Mrs Syd also came home to finding her car washed, vacuumed and filled with petrol ready for her to go to work this morning.

Pool however is not in good nick for todays heatwave

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

It's been a long time since I read about it, but Season 5 was supposed to focus on immigration but they didn't have the time to write the series- authentic dialogue was going to be particularly problematic- so they focused on the media instead.

It's a shame, the Wire is fantastic but season 5 is a drop in quality.

That's very interesting to me - I would have thought that given David Simon's background, he would have always been planning to focus on a newsroom/newspaper and it was probably the perfect time to do it, as we were in the then-early stages of online media taking over. Unless he was originally planning to make more seasons?

On season 5 generally, I find it hard to call it a drop in quality as such, more so that the premise seemed a little far-fetched for a series that prided itself on realism. More far-fetched than 'Hamsterdam'? I don't know. But then, for me, season 3 was probably the peak era of the Wire, in terms of the cast members who were around for that season.

I'm also puzzled by the 'slow to get going' criticism of The Wire (and Breaking Bad, for that matter): I was all in by the end of episode 1 and feel like with The Wire, it'd be hard not to be hooked by the time Omar shows up around episode 3. But each to their own.

Speaking of news, something that I'm amazed hasn't disappeared over the past couple of decades: the weather segment on the nightly news.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Girls were still up the coast so the long weekend was long for me

Mrs Syd also came home to finding her car washed, vacuumed and filled with petrol ready for her to go to work this morning.

Pool however is not in good nick for todays heatwave

Better not call the pool boy.
.


Pistol Night

 

[Pistol Night]

Better not call the pool boy.
.


Pistol Night

Or get him to mail out the invoice.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Or get him to mail out the invoice.

Or send them to your DMs .

 

[peternorth]

Gonna bust these out

 

[Syd]

Better not call the pool boy.
.


Pistol Night

2 less jobs I'd have to do then....

 

[Butters and Pepper]

I never hear anything about warts these days.

I realise they're most common in teenage kids, and admittedly my son is only 7.

But maybe it's my imagination, but I feel like I haven't heard anyone (in mainstream media, youtube etc, and generally) talking about warts, for about 25 years.

 

[Toump Ass]

That's very interesting to me - I would have thought that given David Simon's background, he would have always been planning to focus on a newsroom/newspaper and it was probably the perfect time to do it, as we were in the then-early stages of online media taking over. Unless he was originally planning to make more seasons?

Ok so I remembered wrong, he always wanted to do the media season, but he also wanted to do a Season 6 on immigration:

Here's what David Simon has said about a potential season 6:

"Until now, Baltimore had no Hispanic population. And all of a sudden now we do—a large Central American population. Here’s this remarkable new trend and it’s also relevant to the life of the city. Two things preclude me to keep me from jumping up and down with HBO: One, I just did everything I could for Season 5; two, none of us is fluent in Spanish; none of us is intimately connected to the lives of Hispanics in Baltimore. None of us could do it with the degree of verisimilitude we demand of ourselves. We don’t have that world in our pocket. By time we did the research, The Wire would have been off for two years. It’s one thing when we take six months off to learn how the port works; we’re still in the world we know. But I did no decent journalism about East Baltimore, where most Central Americans are living. It would be great if we could. When I saw the idea in print, I think I reacted as you did: Oh shit! Someone came up with Season 6! For all I know, David Mills mentioned it to me a few years ago, but it didn’t have the import then that it does today. Someone should get to that story. It’s very typical of Baltimore in that we would be late on that. Until now, Baltimore had never had this kind of population—it was only 2, 3 percent Hispanic."