# Some days I feel like Rip van Winkle **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 23, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543 "2011-10-23T16:08:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/1 "2011-10-23T16:08:29Z")
I moved back to the US in June 2010 after about 25 years in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. I lived outside of the US for so long that some thngs have completely passed me by. I bought a single first class stamp at the US Post Office on Friday. I licked it and tried to put it on an envelope. Dang, those suckers now have a peel off back… ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/2 "2011-10-23T16:29:18Z")
Didn’t you notice the waxy paper you were peeling it off of first? ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/3 "2011-10-23T17:53:45Z")
I was at sea for a month once, and Canada introduced a new coin - the twoonie - while I was gone. Another time I was at sea for two months, and wound up wandering around Hong Kong airport looking for my flight, but I couldn’t find the airline. It had gone out of business and all trace of it had disappeared from the airport by the time I was there. It was an eerie feeling. I know a little bit how you must feel. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/4 "2011-10-23T17:56:15Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > I moved back to the US in June 2010 after about 25 years in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. I lived outside of the US for so long that some thngs have completely passed me by. > > I bought a single first class stamp at the US Post Office on Friday. I licked it and tried to put it on an envelope. Dang, those suckers now have a peel off back… Asia doesn’t have self-stick stamps? So…how did it taste? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/5 "2011-10-23T18:22:05Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > I was at sea for a month once, and Canada introduced a new coin - the twoonie - while I was gone. Stay away from Canada for the month of November and you’ll be coming back to [plastic banknotes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=554657)! > [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Another time I was at sea for two months, and wound up wandering around Hong Kong airport looking for my flight, but I couldn’t find the airline. It had gone out of business and all trace of it had disappeared from the airport by the time I was there. :eek: THAT must have been freaky. You did get home, right? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/6 "2011-10-23T18:34:49Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > I was at sea for a month once, and Canada introduced a new coin - the twoonie - while I was gone. Another time I was at sea for two months, and wound up wandering around Hong Kong airport looking for my flight, but I couldn’t find the airline. It had gone out of business and all trace of it had disappeared from the airport by the time I was there. > > It was an eerie feeling. I know a little bit how you must feel. My parents were once planning a trip and found this really low price for their round trip tickets. The only issue was that the airline was in serious financial problems and they couldn’t guarantee they would still be in business in four weeks when it was time for the return trip. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/7 "2011-10-23T18:42:45Z")
My husband needed his car fixed. Called Sears, made an appointment, left. Came home an hour later, all bummed out and said, ‘there was no one there!’ Found out he went to the old mall, where there had once been a Sears years ago, and that Sears had eventually moved across town to the NEW mall. So I said, 'call them back, say you were delayed, ask if you can bring it over later to them, at the new mall." Of course, husband says: “What ‘new mall’?” :rolleyes::smack:😕:eek::(⭕mad::rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/8 "2011-10-23T18:47:31Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > I moved back to the US in June 2010 after about 25 years in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. I lived outside of the US for so long that some thngs have completely passed me by. > > I bought a single first class stamp at the US Post Office on Friday. I licked it and tried to put it on an envelope. Dang, those suckers now have a peel off back… Don’t feel bad. I’m 44 years old and have lived in the states for all that time. Other than some travel I haven’t left it. A few weeks back I was paying bills. Write check, put bill and check in envelope, lick envelope, set aside. I took them out to the mailbox and the ALL fell open. They were all the type with the peel-off things to seal. I’d been licking the back of that all day long. Oy. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/9 "2011-10-23T19:54:35Z")
I hope you didn’t have your heart set on buying a new Pontiac. Or Oldsmobile. Or Saturn. Or Plymouth. Or Mercury. They have all joined Studebaker in that great junkyard in the sky. Although Fiat is back, if that is any consolation… ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/10 "2011-10-23T23:34:12Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Stay away from Canada for the month of November and you’ll be coming back to [plastic banknotes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=554657)! :eek: THAT must have been freaky. You did get home, right? Yup. Eventually. Apparently in that situation the other airlines wind up taking up the slack. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/11 "2011-10-23T23:56:17Z")
They did start screwing around with American currency during my stay abroad, but since I was going home every year for a week or two I can’t say I was really caught short by anything. And these days, with the intertubes, I can read local papers and listen to local radio stations all I want. OTOH I find I usually don’t want to . . . ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-days-i-feel-like-rip-van-winkle/600543/12 "2011-10-26T00:14:39Z")
> [@congodwarf](#): > > Asia doesn’t have self-stick stamps? > > So…how did it taste? Didn’t taste like much. I had bought just one stamp and was surprised at not getting the usual stamp taste, which probably hasn’t happened for a decade at least. At least China and Taiwan do not have self-lick nor self-stick stamps. They have big pots of paste to stick your stamps on with. I can’t remember in HK or Japan. Keep in mind it can be really humid and the self lick stamps will stick together.