HOLD IT RUNNER!!! – you mean there’s actually someone else on this planet that actually knows “Logans Run”???
All resturants are Taco Bell.
I’ll think of something more serious to add after I’ve slept.
(BTW TVGuy. I have Logans Run on DVD;))
They were still showing videos ten years ago? I thought it had been longer. They do show some videos still, mostly between 2 and 8 am. The rest of the day is given over to playing parts of videos that are interupted by people saying things while people in a big crowd scream, showing rich people’s apartments, shows about freaks who pretend to be their famous idols and various other stupid shows about people sitting around/ driving a trailer bitching about how hard their lives are. In fact all the tv stations now air programs like this, some offering people money to bitch the longest. If you’d like a blue screen playing music, you could get digital cable. Besides the normal channels, I have 40 channels that play music and just show the cd’s cover and give the title of song and cd.
Rock isn’t really dead, it just changed its name to Alternative.
And your going to have to dump that 15kg stuff and get back to thinking in pounds and miles and so forth.
Many people pay for their groceries with debit cards that access their checking accounts. You generally can still get your groceries bagged in paper bags – at some stores you have to ask, but at others the checker willl ask “plastic or paper?” They built a bypass road around Richmond – at the same time, they removed the toll booths along that section of Interstate 95. Smokers are social lepers – few public buildings or offices allow smoking inside. Some radio stations have 80s-music formats. Oldies stations now sometimes play the Rolling Stones. The latest three Straight Dope compilations are Return of the Straight Dope (1994), The Straight Dope Tells All (1998), and Triumph of the Straight Dope (1999). Most stamps sold by the post office are self-adhesive. First class postage just went up to 37 cents. The post office dispensing machines give dollar coins in change – one of the few places you will see a dollar coin. (Metro machines also use them). All of the paper money, except the dollar, was redesigned with bigger portraits. But the old bills are still legal tender and in circulation. The quarters now have state themes on the back – the mint is issuing them at a rate of four-states-per-year, in the order in which they were admitted. (When they first started issuing them, I had to explain to a woman from Taiwan that they could be used anywhere, not just in the state which they commemorated). There are no profession football teams in Los Angeles. Neither the Chicago Cubs nor the Boston Red Sox have won any World Series in your absence. There was no World Series in 1994 due to a late season player’s strike – there is a good chance that this will happen again this year. Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs last season. Most stadiums now are named after a company sponsor. The Price is Right is still on daytime television. In the wake of “The People’s Court”, there have been a flood of “court room” shows, although over time they have stressed the drama part more at the expense of actually following real court room decorum. There are now seven national over-the-air TV networks – the “big four” of ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, plus the WB, UPN, and PAX. Television is slowly switching to Digital TV, but a complete switchover is probably at least ten years in the future.
Tip jars are everywhere. Giant has self-checkout lanes (but this is BRAND new). Hollywood Video now trumps Blockbuster as the mainstream rental chain of choice. K-Mart’s dead and a no-name 60’s department store called Target has exploded across the landscape. KFC’s, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut can appear in merged pairs.
All of this is very helpful and interesting. Thanks!
I remember watching “Logan’s Run”, and used to think that dust-farter-30-Y-Os probably ought to be made into Soylent Green. Now I’m not so sure.
Got to admit I never really watched that much MTV - 11 years of student accomodations with no cable. Could be they cut back on videos earlier and I missed it. MTV Asia plays a lot of Mandopop, and wildly amusing videos from the Indian scene.
At least we won’t starve. How do you check your own items? Honor system? Apart from that, grocery procedure is about how I remember it, except for this “affinity card” thing. Come to think of it, there’s a French K-Mart, Carrefour, that does that here. Commercial snooping is still very basic, and it’s something I get the feeling I’ll be uncomfortably aware of at home. We’ve got spam, of course, but very little junk mail and not apparently tailored to our spending habits. Jumping into scrutiny like that instead of having it gradually evolve will feel weird.
I’ve seen the new bucks (although not the coins). They look a little Monopoly™ to me, but I wouldn’t turn any down.
Any photographers on the SDMB? I take a lot of candids and do some street photography, and wonder how people respond to being photographed these days.
All of this is very helpful and interesting. Thanks!
I remember watching “Logan’s Run”, and used to think that dust-farter-30-Y-Os probably ought to be made into Soylent Green. Now I’m not so sure.
Got to admit I never really watched that much MTV - 11 years of student accomodations with no cable. Could be they cut back on videos earlier and I missed it. MTV Asia plays a lot of Mandopop, and wildly amusing videos from the Indian scene.
At least we won’t starve. How do you check your own items? Honor system? Apart from that, grocery procedure is about how I remember it, except for this “affinity card” thing. Come to think of it, there’s a French K-Mart, Carrefour, that does that here. Commercial snooping is still very basic, and it’s something I get the feeling I’ll be uncomfortably aware of at home. We’ve got spam, of course, but very little junk mail and not apparently tailored to our spending habits. Jumping into scrutiny like that instead of having it gradually evolve will feel weird.
I’ve seen the new bucks (although not the coins). They look a little Monopoly™ to me, but I wouldn’t turn any down.
Any photographers on the SDMB? I take a lot of candids and do some street photography, and wonder how people respond to being photographed these days.
aargh
How about some reverse culture shock?
I worked in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, for a year. Two of my Chinese-Malay co-workers went to college in the US; one in Carbondale, Illinois (University of Southern Illinois?), the other to Wichita, Kansas (K State, I think).
These guys were certainly not wealthy but had attained the status of being raised within families of white-collar workers. Kuala Lumpur is an extremely modern Asian-glitz city and they were used to luxuries that far surpassed any available in Carbondale or Wichita; things such as a continuous procession of Indonesian and Filipino maids in their homes, brand-name clothing, etc. These amenities were common to all the white-collar workers within my office from IT professionals to the receptionist. I even had a maid!
One said that a week after checking into the dorm he wondered why the ‘maid’ hadn’t come by to clean his room and do his laundry. The one in Wichita said that he and other Asian students rented a van once a month and drove to Oklahoma City (of all places) to eat dim sum that he thought was the best in the mid-west. Over Christmas vacation one went home to have a maid instruct him on basic cooking techniques - something no one thought he’d ever need.
Culture shock is relative…
Most interstate highways have speed limits of 65 or 70 miles per hour. A twenty-seventh amendment, to limit Congressional pay raises, was ratified in 1992. Ratification took 203 years, having been proposed by Congress in 1789. Most TV shows have ratings, similar to the ones used in movies, which are displayed at the start of the program. Many shows also have closed-captioning, which can be optionally displayed on newer TVs. There are approximately one million different long distance telephone companies. Telephone bills now are about 4 pages long, with all kinds of obscure line entries. People who don’t have answering machines are considered strange, if not rude. Telephone area code regions were getting so small that they’ve started to “overlay” them, i.e. a region can have more than one area code, in which case you have to include the area code when you call your next door neighbors, even if theirs is the same as yours. To call from DC to Virginia or Maryland, you have to include the area code, even for local calls. They ran out of toll-free 800 numbers, so 888, 877 and 866 numbers have been added for toll free access. Postal Zip codes are now nine digits long – “Zip plus four” – with the extra four digits used for carrier sorting. Most commercial mail has the 9-digit Zip code bar-coded on it. People in the United States still think that something that has been around for one hundred years is “old”. Ebay lets you buy all kinds of obscure stuff you could never could have hoped to track down before. Montgomery-Ward went out of business. The Newseum opened in the Crystal City section of Arlington, but it is currently closed pending a move to DC. The White House is only open for children’s tours. Ten additional frequencies were added to the top-end of the AM (mediumwave) band, so it now extends to 1700 rather than 1600 kilohertz. Many office buildings require employees to wear photo IDs, and restrict access using magnetic cards. If you buy a $20 Metro farecard, you get an extra 10% ($2) added to the farecard value. Dodge reentered NASCAR racing. During televised races, there are on-board cameras to give a live driver’s view. Helmet-cams, which offered live views of the approaching ground as football players were tackled, generally fell out of favor. Many televised football games use a system where the first-down location is visually marked within the picture by an orange line. The same technology allows the insertion of display ads behind baseball batters on TV. There is a small professional women’s soccer league, and a larger women’s basketball league. Indoor arena football is doing pretty good, but the XFL only lasted one season. It is not uncommon to get three-to-five credit card offerings per week. Many credit card companies prefer it when you make a late payment or go over your credit limit, because $30 penalties are common. However, if you have a no-annual-fee card, and pay off your charges in full each month, then credit cards are a good deal.
Most interstate highways have speed limits of 65 or 70 miles per hour. A twenty-seventh amendment, to limit Congressional pay raises, was ratified in 1992. Ratification took 203 years, having been proposed by Congress in 1789. Most TV shows have ratings, similar to the ones used in movies, which are displayed at the start of the program. Many shows also have closed-captioning, which can be optionally displayed on newer TVs. There are approximately one million different long distance telephone companies. Telephone bills now are about 4 pages long, with all kinds of obscure line entries. People who don’t have answering machines are considered strange, if not rude. Telephone area code regions were getting so small that they’ve started to “overlay” them, i.e. a region can have more than one area code, in which case you have to include the area code when you call your next door neighbors, even if theirs is the same as yours. To call from DC to Virginia or Maryland, you have to include the area code, even for local calls. They ran out of toll-free 800 numbers, so 888, 877 and 866 numbers have been added for toll free access. Postal Zip codes are now nine digits long – “Zip plus four” – with the extra four digits used for carrier sorting. Most commercial mail has the 9-digit Zip code bar-coded on it. People in the United States still think that something that has been around for one hundred years is “old”. Ebay lets you buy all kinds of obscure stuff you could never could have hoped to track down before. Montgomery-Ward went out of business. The Newseum opened in the Crystal City section of Arlington, but it is currently closed pending a move to DC. The White House is only open for children’s tours. Ten additional frequencies were added to the top-end of the AM (mediumwave) band, so it now extends to 1700 rather than 1600 kilohertz. Many office buildings require employees to wear photo IDs, and restrict access using magnetic cards. If you buy a $20 Metro farecard, you get an extra 10% ($2) added to the farecard value. Dodge reentered NASCAR racing. During televised races, there are on-board cameras to give a live driver’s view. Helmet-cams, which offered live views of the approaching ground as football players were tackled, generally fell out of favor. Many televised football games use a system where the first-down location is visually marked within the picture by an orange line. The same technology allows the insertion of display ads behind baseball batters on TV. There is a small professional women’s soccer league, and a larger women’s basketball league. Indoor arena football is doing pretty good, but the XFL only lasted one season. It is not uncommon to get three-to-five credit card offerings per week. Many credit card companies prefer it when you make a late payment or go over your credit limit, because $30 penalties are common. However, if you have a no-annual-fee card, and pay off your charges in full each month, then credit cards are a good deal.
Most interstate highways have speed limits of 65 or 70 miles per hour. A twenty-seventh amendment, to limit Congressional pay raises, was ratified in 1992. Ratification took 203 years, having been proposed by Congress in 1789. Most TV shows have ratings, similar to the ones used in movies, which are displayed at the start of the program. Many shows also have closed-captioning, which can be optionally displayed on newer TVs. There are approximately one million different long distance telephone companies. Telephone bills now are about 4 pages long, with all kinds of obscure line entries. People who don’t have answering machines are considered strange, if not rude. Telephone area code regions were getting so small that they’ve started to “overlay” them, i.e. a region can have more than one area code, in which case you have to include the area code when you call your next door neighbors, even if theirs is the same as yours. To call from DC to Virginia or Maryland, you have to include the area code, even for local calls. They ran out of toll-free 800 numbers, so 888, 877 and 866 numbers have been added for toll free access. Postal Zip codes are now nine digits long – “Zip plus four” – with the extra four digits used for carrier sorting. Most commercial mail has the 9-digit Zip code bar-coded on it. People in the United States still think that something that has been around for one hundred years is “old”. Ebay lets you buy all kinds of obscure stuff you could never could have hoped to track down before. Montgomery-Ward went out of business. The Newseum opened in the Crystal City section of Arlington, but it is currently closed pending a move to DC. The White House is only open for children’s tours. Ten additional frequencies were added to the top-end of the AM (mediumwave) band, so it now extends to 1700 rather than 1600 kilohertz. Many office buildings require employees to wear photo IDs, and restrict access using magnetic cards. If you buy a $20 Metro farecard, you get an extra 10% ($2) added to the farecard value. Dodge reentered NASCAR racing. During televised races, there are on-board cameras to give a live driver’s view. Helmet-cams, which offered live views of the approaching ground as football players were tackled, generally fell out of favor. Many televised football games use a system where the first-down location is visually marked within the picture by an orange line. The same technology allows the insertion of display ads behind baseball batters on TV. There is a small professional women’s soccer league, and a larger women’s basketball league. Indoor arena football is doing pretty good, but the XFL only lasted one season. It is not uncommon to get three-to-five credit card offerings per week. Many credit card companies prefer it when you make a late payment or go over your credit limit, because $30 penalties are common. However, if you have a no-annual-fee card, and pay off your charges in full each month, then credit cards are a good deal.
I’m absolutely 100% certain I only hit submit replay once. But it took about fifteen minutes to display.
Thanks for a very informative and comprehensive reply!
The speed limit was up to 65 on some interstates before I left, but 70 is new to me. Makes sense, IMO, with the improvements in auto tech. I seem to recall the area code thing in DC prior to '92, as well, but that might be a memory from a visit. Zip +4 was around, too. Not to poke holes in your post - obviously it’s hard to remember just when some changes came about.
It sounds like there’s more to do than ever in Da Capital. Are places like the Newseum and the Spy Museum free? Showing the ladies around and relearning the city is going to be great fun!
Establishing a credit rating is too scary to contemplate. Never taken a loan and had no verifiable income for the past decade. I’m a blank slate except for my Visa. At least my driving record is clean. Just noticed that my license expired on 6/30, but it seems I can still renew for 90 days after expiration, so one of my first tasks will be a trip to the District building. Joy!
The mayor of DC is a faceless bureaucrat instead of a crackhead. The Springfield interchange is being slowly rebuilt into something that actually looks like it was designed to be driven on. A new Wilson bridge is being built bigger but just as ugly. There are two new panda bears in the zoo and these two actually move. The Washington monument was cleaned up.
The Hispanic population has risen, so you’ll see a lot of blingual signs, as well as ATMs.
Rain repellant is now illegal as it subjects rain water to potentially hazardous chemicals.
You can now use Check Cards (which deduct from your checking account) at grocery store checkouts, as well as any place you could use a credit card—even the movies.
Whenever you order anything hot and/or spicy at restaurants, you are required to sign a release form.
Inner-city roads have turned middle turning lanes into extra traffic lanes, depending on time of day. The lane you used to get to work could also be the one you use to get back home. There’s also separate traffic lanes for car poolers and buses.
Praying has changed. Instead of bowing your head and pointing your hands upward, you now wrap your left arm around the back of your head and grab your chin, while your right hand pulls up your right foot and you balance on your left foot.
Self checkout:
There is a little stand with a bar code reader and a scale, and a bunch of bags on a stand which also has a scale (that you can’t see). You scan your bar codes and drop the items in the bag. The machine knows exactly how much each item is supposed to weigh and will stop if the weights don’t add up right. At the end you can select whether to pay with cash, credit card, etc. If cash, you feed it into the machine and it gives you change just like a vending machine. Usually 1 clerk monitors 4-6 stations in case poeple need to purchase alchohol or use coupons. The clerk also identifies and charges non-barcode items like fruit, by means of a video camera installed above the scale.
Other news:
-Crown books has more or less folded and two large chains (Barnes & Nobles and Borders Books & Music) have taken over the bulk of the book retail business. Both chains have coffee shops in the stores and occaisional live music. Borders also sells music and DVDs at most stores. There is a large Borders in Dupont Circle and one about every 10 feet in the Northern Va area. BTW, Borders owns Waldenbooks and B&N owns B. Daltons.
-Many people on the street have cells phones and the plans are generally cheaper than “Land line” phone service that includes long-distance. Among people in their 20s it is increasingly common to not have a “regular” phone at all. On the other hand, pagers are now out of fashion.
-The DC suburbs extend all the way down to Fredericksburg now. Sprawl is a big problem south of DC.
-Nearly every gas station offers “pay at the pump” where you just swipe your credit card to get gas and never go inside the store. I know this existed in the early 90s but IIRC it wasn’t so universal then.