They Just Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used to…

Water heaters!

Once lasted at least 15-20 years, now you're lucky if they last a week after the warranty runs out.

I agree, that’s why I went with tankless, but it doesn’t seem to work as well.

Poppers

Washing machines. When I bought a new one recently, I asked the sales associate its life span. He said with a straight face, “You’ll be lucky if you can get six years out of it. When I asked about a pricier model, he once again replies, “Six years.”

Clothes and shoes. You really have to spend quite a bit of money nowadays for quality. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground anymore.

A lot of formerly higher end or good brands have cheapened their products in sometimes subtle and not so subtle ways.

I hate that EVERYTHING has been designed to squeeze out the most dollars - customer experience, quality or anything else be damned.

Rock music sucks now. It is nothing like the golden years of about 1965-1994 or so.

Car engines and their accompanying systems are made better now than in the past but body styles now are horrible, bland and repetitive.

Kitchen appliances, at least the lower priced ones, are practically disposable now. Gone are the days when a frig or a stove or a clothes washer or a dish washer might last twenty years or more.

My Whirlpool top loader will be 30 years old next year. Over the years I have repaired it twice myself using YouTube's instructional videos. Easy to do. Parts cheap compared to a repairman or a new washer.

I think today's ceiling fans, while more efficient, sure don't last like the old cast iron ones did..

Chairs.

[quote]shows like the Love Boat on TV

Thank God.

R1 I believe that's appliances in general. My mother had the same Maytag washer for thirty years. In all that time, she had to replace a belt in it twice (she was handy like that). Now? Forget it.

Zippers.

R6 - I agree - so many car bodies look so similar too each other.

What I hate are the limited amount of car colors. It seemed there were more car color options in the 50's and 60's - but I wasn't alive then. Light blue, yellow and white, two-tone, purple.

Now if you do see a car that isn't white, black, grey or red, then it's a really gaudy off putting color. Subaru has these. And the new 'putty' versions of colors are god awful.

I'd love to see more colorful cars and interiors.

[quote] Now if you do see a car that isn't white, black, grey or red, then it's a really gaudy off putting color.

You’re scaring me, r12!

Motor boats

Crackers. Have you tried a saltine lately? They're awful.

American fast food - eat KFC or McDonalds in any other country and be amazed.

That is what it used to taste like. But again, they cheapened the ingredients so much that it's just flavorless crap usually.

Whores.

Perfume/cologne isn't made the way it used to be, since some ingredients have been banned by the International Fragrance Association and many classic fragrances have been reformulated.

Mother lol!! Don’t any of you just say Mom. I guess mother goes better with your phony country estate lifestyle.

Pretty much any major home appliance.

I don't know about home appliances, it may be hit or mis. my indecit washer witch i bought really cheaply ten years ago is still working. I had some issues with the heating element but it seems ok now. also my drier is from the same time and it is still going strong, it's a a Samsung. I do expect them to brake at any moment now so am planning already what next to buy.

I'll point one thing that has actually and gotten much better: automobile exhaust systems now that they are all made of stainless steel or aluminum.

No one buys mufflers any more because they last their whole time of ownership!

Men.

The washing machine at our family cottage -- a Whirlpool which I'd date to the mid-late 1960s (the cottage was built in the mid-70s) -- cleans my clothes better than any washer, top loader or front loader, that I've used in the past 20 years. AND it washes with filtered lake water.

Do you smell burned toast, r21?

?? burned toast, no is that like non event toast??

they are just old and make rattling noises like the belts are dry or something. but it would be nice to have new more efficient ones.

Elite universities.

R11, no kidding.

Bought my kid a pair of Doc Martens for Christmas. Since then, both zippers have broken. My shoe repair guy charges $30 per replacement. I’m happy to give him the business, but I just paid $60 so my kid can wear them.

The whole point of buying the Doc (aside from style) is that they last for years. I don’t mind spending $200 on a pair of boots, but when the zippers don’t last six months, that’s not good.

Commercial airline flights

The Samsung dishwasher in the house we newly renovated house we bought at the end of 2019 stopped working in the spring of 2020. When I called around for repairs the answer was unanimously “we don’t work on Samsung”. They’re apparently almost impossible to repair. We ended up scrapping a year old dishwasher for a new Kitchen Aid.

I had to buy a new digital clock for the bedroom and it seems the old reliables like General Electric and Sony don’t make them anymore. They’re mostly unknown brands from China. The first one I got didn’t work right out of the box. The second works, but it’s made of lightweight plastic that just feels “cheap”.

Bottoms.

R30 Why don’t you just use your iPhone as an alarm clock? No one under 45 buys an alarm clock.,

Clothes and shoes. They never last or feel like they used to. Real tailoring and goo materials and solid makes are a relic of the early naughts.

That’s why some of us buy secondhand.

I bought a DeLonghi espresso maker at Goodwill for $10. It eventually crapped out (of course), but at least I didn’t waste $200 on it. I’ve got a beast of an Electrolux from an estate sale ($20) that’s probably 40 years old. Still sucks like a champ.

Also clothing. I get high quality items I could never afford otherwise. I’ve got a wardrobe full of well-made, natural fiber garments rather than the disposable crap from fast fashion retailers. I’ve gotten much more discerning, being able to feel the difference between cheap fabrics and quality. I’ve learned a lot about garments, fabrics and labels through years of thrift shopping. Old LL Bean, Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers are still reliable quality. If you can get the old stuff, it’s a good bet. The new stuff is poor quality, equal to Target’s. I’ll stop now.

I have been very disappointed in LL Bean lately, r34

Maybe their declining quality is why they scrapped their lifetime warranty policy

But you know what’s better now? Outerwear and performance-wear.

I love a good shearling or wool coat, but the new lightweight down is freeing. Who wants to work out in heavy cotton sweats that wind up heavy and soaking? A “breathable” synthetic is better.

So there’s something.

I just had GE leave after repairing my combination washer/dryer. Apparently they have a small thermal fuse on the electronic board on the motor, which, if the unit is OVERLOADED or UNDERLOADED, it blows and then takes out the main board. And of course, the motor board is not sold separately so you're replacing both the motor and the main logic board, to the tune of about $1600. The machine retails for $1299. They just want you to scrap it and buy a new one. It's like the thing is build to die when you can't dry one shirt or towel.

I might add the unit is 9 months old and used like once a week. I think this problem is in all GE washers and dryers.

Chocolate. Or what used to be chocolate and now has some oily fatty stuff replacing all or part of the cocoa butter.

Just look at Mr. Goodbar.

Everything is cheap poorly made crap these days and China is the reason for it.

Bottoms. Now they're all plucked and methed out cum dumps.

Cocaine

On the other hand, tech gets better and better.

r42 I mean yeah, sure the functionality of it, but not durability

Without the saturated fat they crumble to dust...

Pop stars. Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande, and Taylor Swift seem so bland compared to the likes of Madonna, Cher, Mariah, and even Britney.

Blu-Ray players. I know they're old fashioned and people prefer streaming now, but I am still attached to physical media. I have an old DVD player that has lasted over 15 years but I go through Blu-Ray players like crazy. They usually last about 6 months and then start playing only DVDs and then eventually nothing at all. I did manage to get one that has lasted 2 years but it is starting to act up. I sometimes have to open and close it two or three times before it plays. Other times the disc plays the first time. It is strange.

Microwaves. The same thing. We had one that lasted almost 20 years but since it broke down we've had to get 3 or 4 since then.

For microwave the more expensive sharp brand seems to be the best

So many plastic problems, with a lot of different products:

- have bought at least two or three pump spray bottle products (cleaners, air fresheners) and some part of the mechanism breaks. One bottle, the trigger broke after the second use. Another bottle, thr trigger could be pulled but it didn't go back out, you had to push it neck out with your fingers.

- foods with the perforated "dotted line" packaging to tear off (plastic food bags), the perforation is shitty, when you tear the part off it doesn't tear all the way.

- speaking of plastic bags, I've bought products recently where if they have a zipper seal, the zipper is either deformed, or in one case, the zipper part on one side isn't even attached to the bag.

- plastic parts for home improvement projects, don't even get ne started 🙄

- handle on our Dirt Devil vacuum has cracked twice. Poor design, cheap plastic.

- bought a "nice" thermal mug last year. Have hand washed it only. The seal is shot.

I’ve noticed aluminium foil seems thinner now. The regular kind, not the heavy duty kind.

Datalounge posters

Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners have always been cheap and poorly made. My Miele has lasted for years. I have a Dyson too, but keep my Miele downstairs because it works best on hardwood floors.

Gays

I have a Miele, too. I went through some Dirt Devils and equivalents before buying a Miele about 15 years ago and haven't bought a new vaccum since. I'm going to get a new one this year and keep my old one upstairs.

While a Miele is cheaper in the long run, not everyone can spend that much on a vaccum in a lump sum. Simplicity makes good vaccums for a few hundred dollars.

Datalounge

Furniture. It seems like everything is that shitty particle board these days. I had to pay some Amish guys to make my bedroom set out of solid wood. It was worth it, but it’s definitely not nearly as easy as it used to be to find high quality, solid wood furniture.

You're using The Love Boat as an example of how tv was so much better in the past? LOL

And wood furniture is easy to find. Some people just look to invent things to complain about

Twinkies

Coil Spring Mattresses!

Time was if you periodically flipped coil spring mattresses over and rotated them you could make them last for over a decade.

Now many manufacturers have made them only with one wear surface so you cannot flip them.

They cleverly have shortened the buying cycle so you have to buy their shoddy mattresses more frequently.

The Love Boat was quality television, everything is so overdone and ridiculous these days.

Amazon

Half the shit I want isn't in stock and what's the point in paying for Prime when deliveries are late half the time anyway?

Chicken pot pies

Amazon has really gone down the tubes the last 3 months or so. Direct delivery is catching up and sometimes it’s even better to go direct.

R61 My impression is that Amazon used to show availability at any of its US warehouses and ship to you as needed. Now they seem to show availability only at warehouses near you.

Not sure if this is correct. Maybe an Amazonite can confirm.

Threads about wonderful the past was.

r15 I ate Nabisco Premium crackers my whole life, I even have the old fashioned metal tin they came in my Mom gave me when she moved. But the last few years they have been awful, I tried buying the "fresh stacks"to see if the smaller packs tasted fresher. But my mom and boyfriend agreed they are not the same. Now I only buy Zesta saltines and they are getting harder to find.

Computers. Don't laugh but I used my first computer (a Gateway) for 10 years. Now it seems like they purposely make computers to not last so you have to keep buying them.

[quote]. Still sucks like a champ.

Atta girl!

Then there's the graveyard: things you'd still use, if you could.

-- Kodachrome.

-- IBM Selectric with auto-correct.

-- Magazines worth reading, like Time/Life of the '60s.

Street lights - these LED things are like instruments if torture

The ancient city of Oxford, England at 3 in the morning (see link)

* OF torture

Cookware

“Better than cash—these are Urethane skateboard wheels....Urethane, man! It comes from oil. With these you can do the same hard turns that you do on your surfboard; you can even climb walls man, ‘cuz they grip....”

R68 ikr. My Asperger’s makes me sensitive to artificial light, so if I don’t live and work rural or non-urban then my life is a miserable experience. Limits my opportunities somewhat (at least in the conventional sense), but that’s the sad reality of the condition.

For my living space, I go far out of my way to buy old-style non-LED filament lightbulbs, and it makes a huge positive difference. I also use red light filters on my phone more or less at all times.

Thing is those standard light bulbs waste alot of power as heat. To the engineer in me that's very bad. I have all LED lighting and gotta say I'm loving sub $100 electric bills. And the light from them - just fine. I have a stand lamp - LED based. I can change them from cool white to soft white from the touchpad.

And like I said, my electric bill is just $70. I seriously love this.

Duct tape. When the police pulled it off my mouth it gave me moustache burn! - Former American Airlines First Class passenger

YouTube - they’ve taken a fun romp down a crazy rabbit hole and turned into an algorithmic crashing bore, monetized with way too many adverts. Its now only interesting if you are looking for something specific.

R73 fair enough, I appreciate your take. It is an unfortunate drawback. I try to use multiple energy and water saving measures elsewhere in my home, so hopefully that offsets the effect a little. It does make me feel guilty about wasting power nonetheless, and the bills pinch a little too.

Sadly though, for me the lights are a non-negotiable if I want to function in society; for whatever reason my brain cannot physically cope with a lot of LED. Just more ways that our modern life is set up to make people like me more distressed...

Also tbh that kind of lighting is horribly unhealthy for the circadian rhythms of everyone whether on the spectrum or not.

Detergents - lack of phosphates makes odd stains more difficult to clean.

Hand tools - lack of finishing on handles and burrs on the business ends

Nails/needles/screws/tacs - they throw everything in a box and only 75%/are usable.

Denim - the use of elastane has made jeans too thin with deterioration years sooner than old denim.

[quote] The Love Boat was quality television, everything is so overdone and ridiculous these days.

The Love Boat was cringe worthy camp. And I am saying that as a gayling at the time not even knowing the meaning of the word yet. All those washed up stars with a romantic story on a curse ship? Really? Julie must have had some really gook coke. To be far, the one redeeming quality was that occasionally you would see a hot guy waling around in the background in a speedo during the pool scenes. And it wasn't even a gay cruise.

Almost everything:

- People in general dress like slobs

- Music sucks

- Entertainment in general has never been so low brow

The world’s become an ugly and unaesthetic place.

[quote]My Asperger’s makes me sensitive to artificial light,

All man made light except for fire is artificial Dear. Not just LEDs. Your Asperger's is not working well.

As someone who does 3D creative content on a computer, it's SOOOOOOO much better than what I had to work with 25 years ago. In 2000 I was working at a digital studio with hundreds of other artists thinking we were so cutting edge. Every workstation was a $10,000 IBM setup. We had our own render farm and tech staff. I just built my own custom PC last month for the first time and damn that thing is so fast it's like going from a Model T to a Ferrari! I spent about 3,500 and it's top of the line. God how I wish that was around back when I first started out. Nowadays I can focus on creating instead of spending 50% of my time struggling trying to come up with cheesy creative workarounds and visual tricks because the computers wold crash if the scene was even slightly complicated or I wanted more than one light in a scene.

Hair color! As a professional colorist the older products covered gray reliably and had predictable results and durability. They’ve since swapped out ammonia for a much weaker chemical and due to people not reading labels properly have rescinded a lot of the more volatile lightening systems that got the job done quickly. Also, now that everyone has allergies like gluten etc ( or feels they do) lines are diluted, ineffective or don’t last very long, become runny or drip.

We’re charging twice the price for something that lasts half as long.

Windshield wipers!

Once they lasted more than year, now they rarely last a full year. And they cost a lot MORE than they once did.

I used to buy polo-shirts in the 90's and early 00's. Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Nautica. the quality of the cotton was very good no matter the style you bought. bought a RL a couple of moths ago and I was very disappointed by the feel and quality of the shirt.

T-shirts. No matter what the brand or cost, the collars goes all "bacon" after 5 months.

Open your legs wide, boy.

The future is now.

Is there a bed that is durable and somewhat easy to transport without some big box springs, etc. Sick of dealing with all that when I move. I am going the minimalist route and would love a decent twin bed without headboards, box springs, etc

Lots of modern designs are going without the box springs R88. But if you are older think twice, they are usually closer to the ground and harder to get out of. Older people usually like beds really high so they can sit on them like a chair to get in and out of bed easy.

I have to have a built in (wall mount) can-opener. Hate hand-helds and also electrics with a passion. I cook a lot and use a lot of tomato paste and canned tomatoes for Italian sauces. When I moved recently and wanted to install one, I read reviews of the standard model (swing-away) I have always used, and every review said the same thing - the new models would not open cans reliably. I was in a quandary, but went on ebay and someone was selling an unopened one (still in original packaging) from 1970!! I bought it, it arrived by mail during COVID and it works like a dream. People swear by Speed queen washing machines as being sturdier (all steel, no plastic parts or complicated computers). However, online reviews are also criticizing the models of the past few years. Here too I think craigslist or ebay can be a person's best friend if he really wants this level of old-fashioned reliability.

R88 if you’re under 40, a hybrid futon mattress is your new best friend. As well as being less cumbersome, they’re so good for your back and your skin (no off-gassing!), and so much better for the environment.

No need to flip SleepNumber mattress because air never sags over time like the metal in coil spring mattresses.

Memory Foam is the most comfortable, and they deliver with most giving you a 90 day return policy. Comes in a box, all you have to do is unroll it and let it self inflate. Purple beds are also popular.

R93 memory foam is too soft, it will damage and weaken the spine in the long run.

That's an old wives tail r94. Memory foam comes in different firmness. Hard beds are actually worse for your spine and it also depends on how you sleep, side, back or stomach.

My appliance repair guy is honest. I had a Kitchen Aid dishwasher die after five years. Had spent $1500 on it. He said it would be $600 to repair and told me to decide if I wanted to just buy new. He said they're all designed to die within three to five years, which from an environmental perspective alone is pretty appalling. He won't repair Miele. Consumer Reports seems to prefer Bosch so am having one installed tomorrow following his advice: buy the cheapest one that does what you want.

Blenders. I had one that had been my parents. That thing was probably 35 years old before it died. Got a new one about 4 years ago and it croaked last weekend. It wasn’t an expensive one. I think I’m going with a Ninja this time.

Soap operas. When I was a teenager and if I was at home all day, I’d watch almost all of them. (The only one I kept up with after college was All My Children.) They were fun escapism. During COVID lockdown, I tried to watch some of the few remaining ones, and they were all just unwatchable.

R96, I have a Bosch. It’s only 2 years old, but so far, so good. I paid about $100 above the lowest priced model to get one that is quiet. I can barely hear it running.

With appliances, I noticed that there was a time up until about the mid 2000s where what you bought would last quite a while. Everything I bought in 2008 or after died within 10 years or so.

Some things were outright lemons, like the central air conditioner unit, which went through four compressors before the warranty finally ran out. The place that sold it to me gave me guff about it a few times and implied I was breaking the compressors. The third time they gave me a sideways comment about it, I asked, "And just what exactly are you implying that I'm DOING with these compressors to break them?" The guy backed down and blurted out that they always have a percentage of units that are bad from Day One and they just get frustrated dealing with it.

R98: thx... that's what I'm hoping for!

[quote]The guy backed down and blurted out that they always have a percentage of units that are bad from Day One and they just get frustrated dealing with it.

Imagine paying for it.

I had a Kenmore dishwasher I bought as a portable. It ran fifteen years, including being converted to a built in. No bells and whistles but I never had to worry about it. Until that day mid cycle the when the electrics shorted and flames were blowing out the vent on the front! Talk about a mind fuck: a running dishwasher on fire! Just luck I was in the kitchen at the time.... Kenmore, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, was well built.

Kenmore dishwashers were mainly made for Sears by Whirlpool.

Refrigerators are now much louder than before. Apparently over the years they used larger interior space as a selling point and the only way to do that was to make walls thinner and thinner and thinner removing most of the insulation and thereby the sound proofing effect too. Ice makers and water filling internally are now now really loud.

On the plus side, the new Samsung can make craft ice in the shape of perfect softball size spheres.

I got a Maytag 24-inch built-in dishwasher in 2017 for half price at the end of the year as Best Buy was getting rid of old stock. It's been terrific, it's quiet and I have had no problems, other than it does need to be cleaned out with a hot cycle using some citric acid a couple times a month, because the grinder isn't very powerful.

r95 you should feel the mattresses in China! I think sleeping on the floor would be less firm.

[quote]a romantic story on a curse ship

If THAT is what The Love Boat had been about, I probably would have enjoyed it more.

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Cover Models

Ever since Love Boat with Julies bubbly sniffaly on screen character paired with her off screen addiction to coke, I just assume all real Cruise Directors are addicts or have ways to get guest any drugs they want on the ship.

Ritz crackers. They are now so thin there is no need to crush them for various recipes, because you just touch them and they crumble.

Oreos don't use the same great lard they used to, now it's like eating cardboard.

And why the hell is bleach so expensive now?

Android phones.

My current phone (LG V20) has a 6" 2560x1440 display, removable 9000mAH battery, microSD card, IRBlaster (which comes in handy occasionally), a non-glass back (who the FUCK came up with the idea of doubling the odds of cracked glass from a drop?), and a real headphone jack.

Today's new phones are worse in every meaningful way. Even HiDPI displays are damn-near impossible to get anymore. Once you've experienced the crispess of a HiDPI display, there's just no going back. Apparently, Google charges phone $40 instead of $20 if it has a display higher than 300PPI, so everyone switched to "FHD" (1920x1080) to save the money, and now phones with 2560+ x 1440+ displays are almost IMPOSSIBLE to buy.

Making matters worse, AT&T, T-mobile, and Verizon are shutting off 3g AND blocking phones without VoLTE in a few months (even as data-only devices, so you can't just use Google Voice w/data if your phone isn't explicitly whitelisted for VoLTE by the carrier itself. AT&T in particular won't even whitelist non-AT&T-branded phones that ARE VoLTE-capable, like Google-branded unlocked Nexus/Pixel phones. They've taken an open standard (GSM) & managed to pervert it into CDMA2000-like vendor lock-in by weaponizing VoLTE, and our useless fucking FCC (even under Biden) won't do SHIT to force interoperability.

R82, that’s interesting information!

I’m getting the idea from yours and other comments that chemical formulas are changing, and the trend is toward weaker results.

Can any chemical engineers explain that? Is it pressure to keep dumb consumers safer? Are there environmental concerns?

r112, blame the nature nazis and their obsession with abolishing phosphates in dishwasher & laundry detergent, and making us rinse dishes with dirty water with residue so they can save a whopping gallon or two of water.

It's not your imagination. Today's dishwasher detergent IS inferior to what we had ~10 years ago, and doesn't do a good job in older machines with 2 hour cycles instead of 4-6 hour cycles. Their high initial heat deactivates the enzymes new detergent depends upon to work at all, and today's detergents need much longer "wet-soak" time to work.

Tip: Cascade Fryer Boil Out is LITERALLY the product formerly sold as Cascade Pro Dishwasher Detergent... phosphates, bleach, and all. Due to the way laws banning phosphates were worded in most states, they can still sell it as long as they don't CALL it "dishwasher detergent" or market it to consumers (vs "professionals" or businesses).

It's expensive, but there's a sane compromise: use it full strength in the main compartment, but use cheap powder in the pre-wash compartment (or mix it 1 part Cascade to 2-4 parts cheap powder for pre-wash... getting a bit of a phosphate boost, while still using ~half as much of the expensive stuff).

You can buy it at Amazon. It's ~$17 for one box, and ~$70 for 6 (vs the $6-8 it USED to cost in grocery stores back when it was just labeled as "Cascade Dishwasher Detergent"

There's also a company openly selling phosphate-containing detergent (if you live in the 31 states where it's still legal), but Cascade FBO is a lot cheaper & works at least as well or better.

Tape.

Even the supposedly ultra-strong “gorilla tape“ is a piece of shit.

Apparently, back in the 80s or 90s, there were 2-step hair dyes for men that didn't stain skin. You'd apply part 1 & let it soak in for an hour (forming "scaffolding" inside the hair), rinse it out, then apply the second part (which grabbed onto the "scaffolding", but not the skin) and wash it out immediately. Solid roots to tip coverage, no stained skin.

Unfortunately, if you later applied "normal" dye, it would chemically react & melt any previously-colored hair. Hairdressers actually used to snip a few hairs & pre-test them, because people who'd used them were either clueless or lied when asked.

Eventually, those "metallic dyes" were all discontinued when the makers of dye like Just for Men got tired of defending endless lawsuits (lawsuits they almost always won, but were nevertheless an ongoing source of "reputational risk").

So, now we're stuck with dye that leaves more color on your scalp than your roots.

They changed paint stripper because the old stuff with methylene chloride used to kill people OP. In an unventilated room (garage, basement, shed) the fumes could concentrate enough to take a person out through either cardiac arrest or asphyxiation. And apparently you can still buy it. So knock yourself out - literally.

R113, if you live in one of the 31 states where consumer phosphates are still legal, you can buy pure trisodium phosphate (TSP). It's a great additive for heavy duty cleaning. Problem is, it can strip paint, strip polished finishes, tarnish aluminum. I use it on greasy laundry and the occasional grimy clean up job, and rarely a small amount, like a teaspoon, with dishwasher detergent. Usually the TSP is found in the paint aisle of a hardware store. TSP is used to power wash houses before painting, because it cleans and removes the finish from the old paint, allowing new paint to adhere better.

[quote] Hair color! As a professional colorist the older products covered gray reliably and had predictable results and durability.

Not long ago I worked as an executive assistant to a woman CEO in her 60s who spent a fortune trying to keep her hair dark brown. She went to a high end UES salon every few weeks for a dye job at around $300 per visit. By the second week her roots were brassy and the rest of her hair was fading fast to an auburn shade. You could almost time the fading with the lunar cycle. She should’ve just gone gray but her business was finance and she felt she had to look as youthful as possible. Men have no idea how much time and money women are required to invest in their appearance.

IBM's Model M was the second-finest keyboard design, ever. Its predecessor (the AT's buckling-spring capacitive-switch design) was the literal best. Unfortunately, the "AT" design was just too expensive to make, hence the cheaper Model M.

If you made a keyboard TODAY with the AT keyboard's design & quality, it would cost about $800-1,200. In contrast, a new keyboard that's almost identical to a late-90s Model M (with inferior keycaps, added Windows keys, and USB instead of ps/2, but otherwise the same) costs about $150 (and is a damn good investment that will last for decades).

At the cheap end, even a $30 keyboard using Cherry Blue switches is a huge step up from a shitty membrane or chiclet keyboard. IMHO, today's laptop keyboards are unusable (with the specific exception of Thinkpads... and even their keys are inferior to what they had 20 years ago).

Personally, I don't get the obsession with wafer-thin laptops. Weight is painful, but I'd happily add 5-12mm of thickness for a genuinely good mechanical keyboard (say, with Kailh Blue switches).

VCRs

Central A/C. New ones die from coil rot before they're even 10 years old.

My parents' house was built in 1971. They replaced the original air conditioner in 1992, after Hurricane Andrew fucked up the condenser unit & the insurance company paid for a brand new unit. The next unit died after 12 years. Its R410a replacement lasted FOUR FUCKING YEARS before the coil turned to Swiss cheese. The next one lasted ~8 years.

Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK?!? Central a/c units used to last for DECADES. Now, they're lucky to last *A* decade. And the prices now double every 5-8 years.

This seriously pisses me off because of the environmental implications. All this broken junk going, in part at least, to the landfill.

They'll all write about sustainability and all that malarkey on their websites and in their annual reports all while designing and selling crap meant to die and be replaced in a matter of a few years. It's pretty disgraceful.

Teenaged Italian sphincter muscles.

Bars of soap. They used to last a long time. Now I’m putting a new bar in the shower every few days.

Get some plastic soap stands, r124. Try Amazon or Wal-Mart.

I’ll be a fat whore and echo an earlier comment re- fast food. As an 80’s kid, I loved McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza. The last time I porked out and slummed it with Domino’s, it tasted nothing like it did in their “30 minutes or free” glory days. McDonald’s is also gross. This isn’t a bad thing because who needs to be eating fast food in the first place. Removes temptation.

Poppers

The situation with prematurely-dying air conditioner units is insane. The industry talks about "energy savings", but a 2021 R410a unit REALLY saves about $10/month (max) vs a 1999 R22 unit. In contrast, a $6,000 unit that lasts for 10 years costs $600/year to amortize. If it dies a year early, you've effectively lost $600 of value, which would take 5 years at $10/month savings to recoup. If it dies in less than 9 years, there's basically NO realistic amount of future monthly energy savings that's likely to fully recoup the lost "service life" value. And if a less energy-efficient unit can last 20 years instead of 10, you'd have to save at least $25/month just to break even on the cost of buying a new energy-efficient unit vs using the old one for an additional decade of free value.

And don't get me started on the insanity of arguing about keeping greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere by changing to new designs almost guaranteed to eventually develop a leak & vent 100% of their contents into the atmosphere sometime between years 4 and 8. The sheer perverse irony would be hilarious if it weren't so expensive & tragic.

Piggybacking on the Love Boat poster.

Shows where they actually slap bratty kids.

R105, citric acid is available at the grocery store in the form of Lemi Shine. It does help when you have hard water especially.

Did anyone ever slap Ann Romano? Alex should've kicked her azz.

Bags of potato chips. They seem to be mostly air nowadays.

R131 Did jump’n Julie ever give her a good wallop??

I don’t know what they did to it but a 2 liter bottle of Coke only lasts one day now?

R132, the air is nitrogen, and it's there to keep the contents protected from damage, and the nitrogen is a preservative. If you live at altitude, the bag swelling is enormous, and an easy way to determine your bag of chips is sealed.

Hostess Fruit Pies! I remember being a little gay fattie and running to the freezer and pulling out a strawberry or Blueberry pie with actual fruit in them. JJ's are the closest to what they used to be but still don't hold a candle to them.

GLBT films.

[quote]I’ll be a fat whore and echo an earlier comment re- fast food. As an 80’s kid, I loved McDonald’s

Well if it was the same as in the 70's you wouldn't be such a fat whore. Look at the original portion sizes. The small paper bag on the left was the original size.

Yeah, car interiors came in lots of colors.

Clothing

Quebec tops

More 'why today's air conditioners suck' info...

Prior to the late 1990s, air conditioners almost universally used freon. Freon wasn't great for the ozone layer, but its harm was more "detectable" than "real". Its big advantages (vs newer gases) were that it's totally nontoxic to humans (you could literally breathe it... if it displaced too much oxygen for too long you'd silently suffocate as if you breathed nitrogen, but the gas itself was harmless), and it was non-corrosive to metal.

R-22 (~1996 to ~2006) wasn't quite as nice as Freon. The switch was when A/C units went from lasting decades to lasting "a" decade. It was mildly corrosive.

R410a really launched the shitshow, along with rising energy-efficiency requirements. R410a is literally corrosive, and eats away at copper tubing from the inside. It also requires higher pressure, amplifying the effect of a tiny micron-sized hole. The deathblow was when manufacturers started using thinner tubing to gain efficiency, at the cost of making it even easier for corrosion to create leaks.

In the early 2010s, manufacturers switched from copper to aluminum, which is cheaper & a little less prone to being corroded by r410a. Unfortunately, they made it even THINNER than before (to maintain copper's energy efficiency), making it super easy to damage (pebbles thrown by lawnmowers & hurricanes in particular). It's also badly damaged by urine (if your dog decides to use it as toilet target). It's also vulnerable to getting corroded from the OUTSIDE, especially in places with air pollution or salty ocean spray.

Worst of all, aluminum coils are basically irreparable in the field, and practically irreparable at all, because they'd have to cut them out, package them carefully, ship them to a shop equipped to do aluminum welding, transport them back without damage, and then try re-attaching them without being able to properly weld them. So, a coil leak NOW really means total coil replacement. And there's no guarantee replacement coils will even exist after 8 years (if you got a 'great deal' on a discontinued model whose end-of-life countdown was already ticking). In theory, a custom coil can be fabricated... for about $3,000-4,000, and in 6-12 WEEKS (with no A/C in the meantime).

The HVAC industry has now gotten itself addicted to a 10-year replacement cycle, and intentionally strives to ensure that any unit that breaks out of warranty would cost more to fix than repair, and uses warranty terms to coerce people into replacing both the condenser & air handler at once (if you only do one, the warranty gets cut in half, almost guaranteeing a total replacement within 4-6 years anyway).

This is a big reason why Elon Musk is getting into air conditioning now. He's PERSONALLY gotten pissed off by shitty present-day air conditioners & the industry's abusive practices, and the HVAC industry is *shitting* itself right now.

You know what actually sucks? The design of houses. Big corporate builders who build inefficient two story wood frame houses in the middle of the desert. Everyone is excited about the growth that’s bringing minimum wage jobs, yet no one is thinking about the destruction to the land and that there’s no water left. Crank the AC up!

I have a Carrier evaporator coil that was made with copper tubing that was then dipped in nickel. The nickel coating is to prevent what r142 describes.

It is installed in my heat pump's air handler, so it gets a lot of year 'round use.

Eleven years old. So far so good.

Toasters. Anybody have a recommendation?

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX model. Best Kindle, no longer made. Luckily, I have two.

Toilets. Trump was right!

Landscaping. I now have an arborist who will fix how my fancy-schmancy landscaper company didn't plant my trees correctly (even leaving the wire around the base of one very expensive tree!).

As "Danger Man" John Drake remarked when a timed car bomb explodes prematurely: "There are no real craftsmen anymore."

Zombie shows circa 2010.

America's Test Kitchen did a segment on toasters. Find it on YouTube.

Dildos

Gee, thanks, r147! SO much better than asking for a rec here, with real people giving real answers!

Oh....you can still purchase quality products.....but the price will be astronomical compared to what you might expect. Products are made to use, discard , and buy again, and again, and again. The size of grocery store items are packaged in smaller containers but the cost remains the same.

It's to make the middle class feel like their wages still have purchasing power...but in reality....they're getting screwed....while the wealthy reap the profits. Meanwhile, credit debt increases, wages remain stagnant, and rent becomes impossible for more and more people.and the wealthy keep getting those tax breaks. There is something seriously wrong in this setup.

I have a Dualit toaster R145. It is 20 years old and still works perfectly. I haven't had to, but you can replace the element. It is an expensive toaster, but at least I'm not buying one every few years or complaining about my toaster.

Dearest r149 -- Get fucked with a dull chainsaw. XXX + OOO

Dearest r152, please recommend brand. TIA!

A year before COVID hit, our company moved to its new sustainable, eco-friendly state-of-the-art office building. It did look impressive - huge windows, expanses of space, lots of wood and plants. Within six months, basic things started to fuck up. Doors didn't line up to frames and wouldn't close, the kitchen benchtops were faded and stained, hot/chilled water taps were regularly out of order, soap pumps in the bathroom were broken, paper towel bins were tiny and regularly overflowed, automatic bathroom taps delivered only a sprinkling of water that could not be changed, the air conditioning was either too cold or too warm and could not be adjusted in sections for different aspects of the building. The list of problems went on and on. And as for all those lovely plants, they're all wilting and dying because no-one wants to water them.

COVID hits and we all start working from home. The water system goes nuts through lack of use and two floors of the building are flooded and have to be repaired.

R154, why didn't you try to save the plants? Lazy ass!

r144, I believe you're referring to Carrier's "Coastal Coil" option. From what I recall from ~2009, it almost doubled the unit's price vs the regular model, and added several weeks of special-order lead time. When I got a new unit last year, I vaguely remember that the added cost came down a bit compared to 2009, but it was only available for their most expensive condenser units, and not available at all for their package units.

The biggest lie HVAC companies sell is SEER and its real monthly bill savings, because SEER itself is totally gamed by manufacturers. It really only accurately estimates savings if your unit is MASSIVELY oversized, only dehumidifies the house to 50-60% RH, cools the house to ambient minus 20F or 78-81F, and allows the temperature to swing by 2-4F between cooling cycles so it runs for 10 minutes, then rests for an hour. The further you deviate from that, the less relevant SEER really is.

Personally, I like having a 74F house (70F overnight) at 30-32% max RH (even when it's 102F outside), with 0.5F max swing and at most 20 minutes between cycles (to keep the air from stagnating in bedrooms).

In retrospect, I wish I'd gotten the dual-stage model. On cold (50-65F) nights during the winter, I occasionally have to run it for 5-on, 30-off AND simultaneously fire up the 11kw heat strips for 2-3 minutes to meet the recirculation goal without freezing the house or re-evaporating condensate & raising the humidity.

Gamekeepers

McDonald’s apple pies.

Entertainment Weekly. I used to read that thing cover to cover every week. Now it’s monthly and mostly full of people and shit I don’t care about.

Every single product made with high-fructose corn syrup.

Diet pills. Dexatrim really helped curb my appetite.

The Republican Party. Years ago, they dabbled in minor fascism with Barry Goldwater, and they got the shit beat out of him at the polls.

Now we've survived a real fascist President, a Republican-led attempted coup, ongoing attempts to destabilize the country and the incumbent Democrat, and they're just warming up.

Luxury commodities. For example if you have Italian or French leather items made before 1980, sometimes 1990, they are indestructible.

Coach, I have some vintage coach from my grandfather and it’s so much better than what they make today.

Cockrings. Can’t find a one that keeps me hard these days.

Singers like Linda Ronstadt.

Tastykake Blueberry Pies.

Carrots. I find them all tasteless, even organic ones.

Campbell's Soups.

Automobile music players. (Love my 6-CD changer!)

Car windows---no side vents.

Cartoon animation.

Toys and games. Come on; Mr. Potato Head needs a real potato!

Newspapers.

Meals on airplanes at no additional cost.

Luxury commodities is a bad word now, it's been in decline for decades as ostentatious and frivolous over spending Boomer style.

Yes, I know, quality, well quality does not equal luxury. I can buy a high quality leather jacket without having to buy a fur coat.

Concert venues

Pop-tarts

Dentist. Their work is shoddy and it seems instead of trying to save the teeth they push for implants.

When I was a kid, the hostess swiss rolls used to be huge. Now they're the size of yodels. Also, All Little Debbie cakes are much smaller than they used to be.

You could use smaller cakes and cookies.

Prostates.

Retro kids games like Trouble, Connect Four, and Mastermind. I had these games in the 1970s. Good quality, lasted forever, currently in storage in my parents' attic. I recently bought new versions of these games (to give as gifts) and the quality was so shitty! Cheap, thin plastic.

R175.... I hear that. And the muted sound of reduced morning flow.

Cell phones. Programmed to last only a couple years or so. By that time, it starts taking forever to charge them, and you reach the point where it’s cheaper to buy a new phone than a new battery.

Likewise phone chargers, which teach a point where they just don’t work. Even new chargers only work so long.

Everything is just planned obsolescence.

*reach

My iPhone is less than 2 years old R179 and it seems the numbers pad is going out.

In the US, at least, the fact that appliances don't work well and don't last long can be traced to many of the mandates the EPA puts on manufacturers.

You have huge lists (I mean 1000s of pages) of requirements that any new appliance must meet. And, these requirements have nothing to do with how well the product works or how reliable it is. This is also why major appliances are getting more and more expensive, unlike other manufactured goods.

When you outsource everything to China the products are not of the same quality. They don't know how to make washing machines or anything else with the same know-how. Hollywood is full of Wokes who only think about satisfying a bunch of teenagers in crisis who scream on Twitter for absolutely anything and the producers are convinced that they represent the majority of people. That's why there's no show as fun as Love Boat these days. The SJWs would always find something offensive since this crazy generation is offended for anything.

Time and Life. In the Sixties those magazines opened your eyes to the world.

My Bosch dishwasher is 4 1/2 years old, dealer said it would last about 8. I only use it once a week, so I'm hopping that'll extend its life. Families that run the dishwasher twice a day, I feel for them.

My car (Honda Civic) is 19 years old with 120K miles on it. I've only had one major repair...I'm afraid to get a new car. I figure this on will last another five or so, but one day I'll have to get one of those computer run monstrosities.

r145, I had the same problem with toasters. Our 15-year-old toaster bit it and replacements would either not heat up properly or they let off fumes long after they should have burned off, so I returned them all. Ended up spending $80 on a Russell Hobbs that works just as well as my old $10 one from 15 years ago. It's the Russell Hobbs 2-Slice Retro toaster, they're $50 now, surely there must be some good ones cheaper than that but I got tired of trying to find them.

ATM cards.

I dream of the day I have a credit card where the gold on the numbers doesn't rub off. I don't want much really.

Charmin.

Thank you, r185, but the Retro looks too complicated for me!

It's a normal toaster r189, there's nothing complicated about it except maybe the bagel button. Seriously. Don't let the price fool you, it is literally a toaster where you put the bread in and push the plunger down, and there's a little sliding button to adjust how dark you want it.

My Mr. Coffee digital coffeemaker with automatic shutdown died last year during the pandemic when I was teleworking. I was using it every day, as opposed to the weekends and holidays. It just stopped working-blew out the socket too. I took it to an appliance shop and the clerk said that it would cheaper to get a new one. I paid $79USD for that one. I purchased another, more basic model with no timers or digital readout; just a plain old coffeemaker. No real difference in taste either.

New cars aren't nearly as fun to drive as older, simpler, more "agricultural" motors. They all look the same now as well.

R145, spend a little more and sometimes you'll get better. I don't know how much it was, but I have a seven year old Hamilton Beach toaster that works as well as the day I bought it. My electric can opener is a $35 Hamilton Beach - it lifts the top off instead of cutting through it. Over five years old and works like new.

I have a beautiful red Kitchen Aid one (big) cup coffee maker that's six years old. It's not working as good as new, but it works fine. They don't make it anymore, naturally.

I'm with R172 when it comes to dentists. I'm on my third one in a year. Either my past dentist of 20 years did better work, or my teeth are just worse because of age. I went to an "old school" DDS, age 62, last year for a crown and it was so botched it has to be replaced.

For all of you people who think you need fancy expensive one cup coffee makers:

Get a Melita plastic cone thing that simply goes over the coffee mug. Put filter and coffee in it, pour hot water in it. You get coffee!

My grandmother used a big glass one in her day and made a pot this way, so it's as retro as a 1952 DeSoto.

Before anyone says Keurig, the plastic cone described above is far less pricey (duh) and lasts forever.

In regard to toasters and other small appliances, just go to goodwill or value village and get a used one of the proper vintage for $3. If it works well, you've saved yourself a lot of money, and if it fails after a year, you're only out $3. People give away appliances they rarely use to thrift stores all the time, many of them in very good condition. Why put money in the hands of a foreign company for something that doesn't even work well?

Pour over? Trash! Keurig? Even trashier!

[quote] I now have an arborist

Arborists are a scam. They’re drunks & drug addicts — or supposedly reformed drunks & drug addicts. They’re baby daddies whose girlfriends live above their parents garage & collect welfare. They’re always telling you …landscapers don’t know anything about trees….people who work at tree nurseries don’t know what they’re doing….you need to have your trees pruned every spring….then topped….then sprayed so the beetles don’t get them…now cut the bottom branches off your pine trees to make them look neater and lighten the weight on the trees so they don’t fall down and make it easy to mow under the trees so weeds don’t grow & animals don’t live there….we’re professionals (just like exterminators are all “pest professionals” nowadays, guys with saws are now “professional arborists”).

WTF? So now we gays are supposed to be anti-arborist? GFY, R198!

[quote] Dentist. Their work is shoddy and it seems instead of trying to save the teeth they push for implants.

I hate dentists. I went to a dentist who waited so long to put an implant in after my tooth was extracted that my gums receded and I had to get two other implant crowns removed and replaced because they didn’t fit anymore and metal was showing and a big hole between my implant and gum! That dentist then told me I’d have to have both implants removed & replaced as well as get new crowns.

So I went to a different dentist and he said no, yiu don’t need new implants, just new crowns. Great. Then I had him replace an old crown that was a different color from other teeth because they used different materials & color in old days. And he said “You should get all of your bottom crowns replaced, they’re pretty gray.” I said “Nah. I’m kind of done with replacements, but I need an apnea device.”

This guy jerked me around for 9months saying “we’re checking your insurance…..we haven't heard yet….” I made another appointment and he took photos and said “We’ll check with your insurance.”

Three months later “we haven’t heard from your insaurance company.” All the while I was saying “I’ll pay out of pocket, I don’t care. I just need this appliance on orders of my pulmonologist.” So I go back to get my teeth cleaned and mentioned to the hygienist that I’ve been waiting for months to get this device. She says “I’ll ask about it.” Then she comes back in and tells me my dentist has left the practice and his partner doesn’t do apnea devices. A cap comes off while she’s cleaning my teeth, so she goes out…comes back and says “Oh your dentist *just happens to be here today* finishing up some odds & ends so he will come in and recement the crown.”

The whole thing was very suspicious. The dentist comes in, cements the cap and I say “If you’re finishing up, how about that apnea device?” Nah, he says. Can’t do it. “I’m leaving. I won’t be here again. We’ll be happy to give you a list of dentists in your area who do that” and he’s saying it in this singsong voice like when you talk to a toddler.

Several months later I checked the website, he’s still there. He never left. I guess I got kicked out of the practice for not getting my bottom crowns replaced. But why tell me they’re checking with my insurance for 9 months? Why not just say “We’re not doing those things anymore. Bye,” when I first asked?

Alpine sweaters made from boiled wool.

And hiking boots, for that matter. I mean you have go really artisanal and super pricey to get an honest old fashioned sturdy leather warhorse.

By the way I think there is only one cowbell maker left in the Swiss Alps.

I rent a house and when I moved in, the landlord provided me with a used fridge. I didn't care that it had been used. Had no idea how old it was until I was watching an episode of Young Sheldon which takes place in the 80's and his family had my exact fridge.

It's still going strong, btw. A couple of shelves have busted off but whatever.

I just had to replace my old Kenmore refrigerator this week. It lasted 12 years. First the ice maker broke, then the freezer stopped cooling, then the refrigerator quit cooling. I knew it wasn't worth repairing, so did some research and bought a new whirlpool 4 door fridge. Samsung seems to have the most problems so I did not want to buy one. Even though Whirlpool isn't high end, it had the best reviews. I'm hoping the new one will last at least as long as my old Kenmore.

Tops. They have become very lazy.

R203, that fridge will probably outlast a new one you would have bought in 2020.

Not only are the appliances bad now, but the extended warranties aren't much better. I never used to buy extended warranties, but I think it's a must now.

I have a low-end Amana washing machine that crapped out a few days after the 1-year manufacturer's warranty. But I did buy the 3-year extended warranty, which is apparently administered by some third-party outfit. It's an hour on hold to get a customer service rep (can't do anything online). Then a few days later you get a call from the repair service and set up an appointment. Apparently parts aren't carried in the truck anymore. The guy decides what part is needed but it has to be ordered and they'll give me a call in a couple of weeks when it comes in and make another appointment to actually fix the machine. It was a common part and I really doubt it had to be ordered since there are many appliance parts stores in my area. So it was about a good 3 weeks of going without a washing machine and schlepping to the laundromat.

New refrigerators are shockingly irreparable.

In the past, condensate ran down into a heated metal pan under the refrigerator & evaporated away.

~20 years ago, they switched from metal pans to plastic pans. The pans eventually deformed & cracked due to the heating elements, but at least it was a cheap & easy fix.

NOW, in the holy name of "being green", they have complex systems that pump condensate over the hot compressor to eliminate the drip pan and heating element. Unfortunately, they created two NEW problems:

* The shitty pumps break in a few years, and replacing it requires several HOURS of disassembly.

* The compressor *depends* upon condensate water for proper cooling. If your humidity is "too low", not enough condensate is available, and the compressor runs too hot & dies prematurely.

Both repairs are now unit-killing breakdowns, because they cost so much to fix vs buying a new unit. Once again, we're prematurely filling landfills with broken appliances in the name of "saving the earth".

^and don’t forget Punky’s bestie that got stuck inside a refrigerator. Good thing she was there to give her CPR!

Shipping sucks. They throw things into those light gray plastic mailers, and whatever's inside gets crushed, including boxes of medical supplies. Amazon used to shrink wrap books to a piece of cardboard and box it; no more.

A simple, hand-held can opener. They're all total crap...work for a couple months, then the gears don't sync and you end-up going boy scout and cutting the can open with a knife. Why aren't all can lids pull tops now?

How about getting a new fangled ELECTRIC can opener?

^^ I have one, actually, but I don't like piles of appliances sitting on the countertops, and I don't want one hanging down from the cabinets...just easier to reach into a drawer and then put it away. Its annoying, because I remember my grandma having one that hung on her kitchen wall that was probably 30 years old when I first became aware of it, and it worked until she died 45 years later and we sold the house. Maybe I should just get an antique one. ^^

You can’t buy anything high end anymore. Even if you’re willing to pay a lot more for something good, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t exist

[quote] In the US, at least, the fact that appliances don't work well and don't last long can be traced to many of the mandates the EPA puts on manufacturers.

Guess who writes laws for the EPA?

Manufacturers.

They’ve been doing it for decades.

You think George Bush or Donald Trump allowed granola types to write EPA laws? Guess again

What about that guy in the middle, O-something. Eight years as President he was. Enough time to do something about refrigerators, if nothing else.

The freezer section of my Frigidaire is cracked at the bottom. Now, I have to push it extra hard to make sure that it seals properly.

My 1986 GE fridge was still going strong 25 years before I replaced it. Why? Because the old fridge NOISE produced by ice freezing on the fan in the freezer gave me migraines. So, I splurged on a pricey Fisher & Paykel one that fits much better. It's almost ten, no issues.

A lot of time the old things last a long time, but there are problems you simply cannot live that long with.

R200 the dentist I had been going to since infancy (so, over 25 years) recently kicked me off his patient list without a warning or an apology, because he was going private (for even more crazy money) and me being a broke 20-something student (struggling to get full-time decent work) obviously I couldn’t pony up for his really expensive plan to buy his third Range Rover and his last kid’s house.

He generously allowed me to stay on at the practice and see the junior trainee NHS dentist there (a sweet woman, but not a great dentist), but not without much eye-rolling and sighing and looking at his watch like I’m filth all through our final appointment. Until that day, I had always thought him a decent professional guy, and really liked seeing him even as a little toddler afraid of the chair, so it stung quite a bit and left a bad taste in my mouth (hah) when he did that.

Tbh my Doctor’s surgery is going the same way. My current GP, who arrived about five years back and replaced the one I’d had all my life, is basically awful and amateur and uninvested in properly investigating patient health. That’s why I usually speak to locums, when I actually manage to get an appointment at all (COVID + incompetent judgmental reluctant receptionists are not a good mix).

Social health is all well and good, until it isn’t. Wish I had any hope of making a good enough living to pay for private healthcare one day soon.

You are stone white.

So delicate.

I remember you in my heart.

I boy I haven't seen before.

You are beraking my heatt.

My pictures of you.

Do you always go around like that? Always breaking men's hearts?

Sparkling lube

Crucifixions.

The English football leagues.