# Feel old yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 23, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929 "2006-08-23T19:23:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/21 "2006-08-24T01:21:33Z")
Oh, and there were smoking and non-smoking sections on airplanes. I had a row of airline seats that I was using as a couch, and each arm rest had a little ashtray. I saw a film in London in the '80s, and they had a smoking section there too; which I found rather bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/22 "2006-08-24T08:51:46Z")
[QUOTE=dangermom] Your library still has a card catalog? Even my poor little library has a computer system these days (courtesy of a bequest from a Friend of the Library). [/QUOTE] My library has both! Nyah, nyah! ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/23 "2006-08-24T09:13:43Z")
[QUOTE=Lissa] We had a new intern working at my museum’s research library. She had never heard of the Dewey Decimal System. She asked me how we came up with it. [/QUOTE] I’m pretty sure she’s just clueless. Nobody gets through high school without learning to use (and USING!) the Dewey Decimal System, unless you funny Yanks are starting to phase it out and replace it with something NEW AND EXCITING. Or something. The same goes for plenty of items on that list. Some of them, like Google and Michael Moore, came into prominence DURING our lifetimes. They’ve only “always been there” in the same way they’ve “always been there” for you old folks - in that we’ve got used to having them there. Reality shows have “always been on television”? We’ve “rarely mailed anything using a stamp”? Dude. Were these students actually polled at any point in time, or were the academics involved just paging through statistics and pulling crap out of their ass? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/24 "2006-08-24T09:31:54Z")
[QUOTE=Foldup Rabbit] \*12. Smoking has never been permitted on U.S. airlines. \* - This, to me, seems sort of absurd. I mean, lighting fires in an enclosed tube hurtling through the sky? [/QUOTE] That only internationally disappeared around 1990 I believe. Through the eighties as a kid I got to have the distinct pleasure of international flights with smoking seats (usually the last 10 or 20 rows on the plane.) We were non-smokers, but you’d have to walk through it on the way to the rear restroom. I would be relatively certain that at least some airlines somewhere in the world still permit smoking onboard. (Mid-east? Russia maybe?) ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/25 "2006-08-24T09:36:39Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] That only internationally disappeared around 1990 I believe. Through the eighties as a kid I got to have the distinct pleasure of international flights with smoking seats (usually the last 10 or 20 rows on the plane.) We were non-smokers, but you’d have to walk through it on the way to the rear restroom. I would be relatively certain that at least some airlines somewhere in the world still permit smoking onboard. (Mid-east? Russia maybe?) [/QUOTE] Aeroflot, the Russian national airline, banned smoking on international flights sometime around 2000, iirc. I do distinctly remember a smoking section on the outbound flight to Europe…and then two weeks later, the smoking section was full of itchy fingered nicotine addicts who were reflexively lighting up, in spite of the fact that it was now banned. Smoking may still be allowed on some Russian domestic flights, but I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/26 "2006-08-24T10:14:43Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] I would be relatively certain that at least some airlines somewhere in the world still permit smoking onboard. (Mid-east? Russia maybe?) [/QUOTE] A few years back I flew Turkish Air from Albania to Istanbul and there was still a smoking section. Could have changed by now. Nothing like a planeful of people smoking turkish cigarettes. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/27 "2006-08-24T10:26:22Z")
[QUOTE=Ghanima] This list would be a lot cooler if it was all actually true. But with at least half of the items being outright lies, it kind of loses it’s appeal. [/QUOTE] For instance? I didn’t see anything blatantly wrong with the list. ---
**Author:** ![Foldup\_Rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df788c/32.png) [@Foldup\_Rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foldup_Rabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/28 "2006-08-24T10:52:31Z")
[QUOTE=Surly Chick] A few years back I flew Turkish Air from Albania to Istanbul and there was still a smoking section. Could have changed by now. Nothing like a planeful of people smoking turkish cigarettes. [/QUOTE] That’s amazing to me. I mean, I flew a lot growing up in the eighties (divorced parents), but all my flights were domestic. It’s something I have trouble wrapping my head around. Fire + enclosed space = silly. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/29 "2006-08-24T11:17:28Z")
[QUOTE=Foldup Rabbit] That’s amazing to me. I mean, I flew a lot growing up in the eighties (divorced parents), but all my flights were domestic. It’s something I have trouble wrapping my head around. Fire + enclosed space = silly. [/QUOTE] The last time I flew and smoked on a flight would have been 1986 or so. I don’t smoke anymore, but once you were airborne, the flight attendant (the stewardess!) would come on the PA and say, “The captain has turned off the No Smoking sign. Please feel free to move about the cabin” or something like that. Once you got close to your destination, you had to sit back down, buckle up, return your tray table to its upright position and stop smoking. The small white holiday lights? When I was growing up, we always had the huge 2-inch multi-colored lights. If one burned out, the whole string stopped working and you had to check each bulb to find the one that was bad. My in-laws still have them, and amazingly, they still work. I’m sure they’re a fire hazard. My kids are amazed by them and think they’re funny. Of course, now we use the tiny white lights. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/30 "2006-08-24T12:56:59Z")
I don’t like the tiny white lights. Not on the tree. For icicle strings maybe (something else we didn’t have as kids) but the tree? It’s gotta be multicoloured – and not the crap tricolour ones that omit one of the colours. Red, green, blue and yellow, and possibly purple, but the first four _must_ be present. I usually dress mine with the smaller multicoloured lights if only because it appeals to my esthetic sense, but as a kid it was always those big 2" lights, and damn if they didn’t look pretty amidst the coloured glass (glass!) spheres and piles of tinsel. (Yes, you can still get glass christmas balls and the like, but they’re more expensive and overshadowed by the cheap-but-safer plastic crap with the visible seams and irregular surface. But come on. What fun is Christmas without the risk of breaking a few ornaments in exchange for the beautiful irridescence of mirror-plated glass bobs hanging precariously from the tree’s branches?) ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/31 "2006-08-24T13:11:07Z")
When Northwest airlines made the bold decision to make all their domestic flights nonsmoking I rejoiced. The smoking section of the plane was the back and it was noxious to go back there to use the lavatory. I am so very glad all the airlines followed suit. /bought a rotary phone recently for $1. //looking for a metal ice cube tray. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/32 "2006-08-24T13:46:05Z")
[QUOTE=FlyingRamenMonster] I’m pretty sure she’s just clueless. Nobody gets through high school without learning to use (and USING!) the Dewey Decimal System, unless you funny Yanks are starting to phase it out and replace it with something NEW AND EXCITING. [/QUOTE] Never say “nobody”, 'cause some smartass like me is instantly going to provide an example. (The Christian school I attended didn’t teach the kids anything about it. They didn’t want us using the public libraries.) I remember I did get a quick course in it while I was in public school. It was one of those “add on” lessons-- something that was touched upon once, quizzed and then promptly forgotten. I remembered it because I like libraries, but I imagine for most kids it didn’t stick any more than the lesson we had in Home Ec about setting a table properly. (Unless you have occasion to use it, you’ll forget it.) ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/33 "2006-08-24T14:02:47Z")
The Christmas tree light thing confuses me. Small lights have been used in my family since at least the 70s, and I don’t remember a time when white lights were not around. I’m not sure about the 60s. That decade is all a haze to me. Man. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/34 "2006-08-24T14:06:00Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] If not, have a ready through Beloit College’s [Mindset List for the class of 2010](http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/23/frosh), a list that compiles some basic facts about what our current generation of froshes do – and don’t – know about the way the world has always been. Of the more depressing highlights: Now pass me my cane and get the hell off my lawn. [/QUOTE] We have _always_ been at war with Eastasia ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/35 "2006-08-24T16:19:06Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] That only internationally disappeared around 1990 I believe. [/QUOTE] I was allowed to smoke on an Air France flight from Paris to NY in 1994. ---
**Author:** ![Pixisis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@Pixisis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixisis)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/36 "2006-08-24T16:56:58Z")
[QUOTE=FlyingRamenMonster] I’m pretty sure she’s just clueless. Nobody gets through high school without learning to use (and USING!) the Dewey Decimal System, unless you funny Yanks are starting to phase it out and replace it with something NEW AND EXCITING. QUOTE] Most universities, or at least those that participate in RLIN\*, use Library of Congress cataloging, an alphanumeric system. IIRC, if the first letter of the catalog “number” is P it indicates language or literature. PD is Germanic languages and Scandanavian languages, PE is English Language. PN is General Literature. PR English literature, PS American literature. First letter Q is for science. First letter R is for medicine. … :: googles :: You can find an outline [here](http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html). my memory worked today. 🆒 \*RLIN is the Research Library Information Network. They post their cataloging records for other members to use, so each library doesn’t have to catalog the same book from scratch. Sometimes the only changes that need to be made are the last line of the catalog number, which shows the exact shelf location. ---
**Author:** ![Pixisis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@Pixisis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixisis)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/37 "2006-08-24T17:04:29Z")
[QUOTE=FlyingRamenMonster] Nobody gets through high school without learning to use (and USING!) the Dewey Decimal System, unless you funny Yanks are starting to phase it out and replace it with something **NEW** AND EXCITING. [/QUOTE] Library of Congress Cataloging System is not exactly new. Yale University started using it in the late 60s or early 70s, and by the early 80s had phased out the use of the Dewey Decimal System. [QUOTE= Wikipedia] [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress_Classification) The classification was originally developed by Herbert Putnam with the advice of Charles Ammi Cutter in 1897 before he assumed the librarianship of Congress. It was influenced by Cutter Expansive Classification, DDC, and was designed for the use by the Library of Congress. The new system replaced a fixed location system developed by Thomas Jefferson. By the time of Putnam’s departure from his post in 1939 all the classes except K (Law) and parts of B (Philosophy and Religion) were well developed. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/38 "2006-08-24T17:25:39Z")
The UC Berkeley library used the Library of Congress system in the 70s, when I worked there. If the intern that \*\*Lissa \*\* mentions is familiar with the LoC but not the DDS, then that’s just an arcane little quirk. If they’ve never heard of either system, then she’s just a dolt. Even if your catalog is computerized, you still need a system to find the book on the shelf. Some of the items on the list are pushing it a bit…like “google” as a verb. That started happening well into the lifetime of current 18-year-olds (but probably before they became computer literate). And there have been 3 presidents since 1988; they just don’t remember the 1st one, since they were 4 yo when Bush I left office. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/39 "2006-08-24T17:29:48Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] That only internationally disappeared around 1990 I believe. Through the eighties as a kid I got to have the distinct pleasure of international flights with smoking seats (usually the last 10 or 20 rows on the plane.) We were non-smokers, but you’d have to walk through it on the way to the rear restroom. I would be relatively certain that at least some airlines somewhere in the world still permit smoking onboard. (Mid-east? Russia maybe?) [/QUOTE] I smoked on a plane as late as 1996 on a flight to Brazil from the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929/40 "2006-08-24T17:44:25Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Carbon copies are oddities found in their grandparents’ attics. Hell, I STILL use carbon copies AND a typewriter in my volunteer work over at the hospital-we use the carbons for patient info sheets, and discharge instructions, plus I have to use the typewriter to put down the doctor’s names, the procedures, etc on the consent forms. > [@](#): > > 1. Brides have always worn white for a first, second, or third wedding. Huh? Okay, maybe second and third, I’ll give you. But white has been THE color for a first wedding probably since the time of the First World War, or maybe even a little earlier. It was started by Queen Victoria in 1840-wearing white for one’s wedding. At first, only the upper classes, but I have my great-grandparents wedding pictures, and of them, two of my great-grandmothers are wearing white. Including my mother’s maternal grandmother, who got married in 1906. Anyone who remembers white being uncommon for FIRST weddings has to be a medical miracle by now. And Sara Lee makes underwear? What kind of underwear-edible panties? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-old-yet/369929.md?page=3)