# Stuff worse than it used to be **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556 "2016-02-08T20:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/21 "2016-02-08T23:04:27Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > You used to be able to fix your own vehicle if you knew how. Now you can’t or may get sued if you try. How is that progress? On the other hand, a car is no longer a rusted out junker with a worn out engine by 100k miles. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/22 "2016-02-08T23:10:45Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Cracker Jacks prizes. Not just Cracker Jacks. Breakfast cereal marketed to children contained really cool prizes back in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/23 "2016-02-08T23:12:49Z")
Chocolate off the candy rack isn’t worth buying these days. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/24 "2016-02-08T23:14:37Z")
Airline food. When my dad and I flew from Ohio to California in 1977 (I was 10 years old), I remember them serving filet mignon. And we were in _coach_. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/25 "2016-02-08T23:21:07Z")
[Chemistry sets](http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2013/vintage-chem/) used to be _really_ cool. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/26 "2016-02-08T23:27:59Z")
Going to a gas station, they had a person who would pump the gas and sometimes clean the windshield. TV shows had fewer commercials. Baseball games were quicker and you could go to a double header several times a year. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/27 "2016-02-08T23:35:32Z")
In 1974 my (then) husband bought me a portable dishwasher for Christmas. It’s a full-sized appliance that you park in the kitchen and wheel over to the sink to hook up the water. I’ve taken it with me from residence to residence over the years. I’ve always lived in older houses/apartments (1920s to 1940s) and have never had a built-in dishwasher. The thing worked like a trooper and I replaced a couple of parts (while they were still available). Finally, in 2006, after 33 years, it gave up the ghost. I went to the local hardware store in my small town and bought another portable (I still have it), and the salesman said, “Don’t expect this one to last as long as that other one did. They don’t make them like that anymore.” ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/28 "2016-02-08T23:45:19Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Going to a gas station, they had a person who would pump the gas and sometimes clean the windshield. Well, if you live in Oregon or New Jersey they still pump your gas. Self service is against the law in those states. Not sure if they’ll clean your windshield or not. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/29 "2016-02-08T23:46:56Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > **Movie popcorn**. Whatever that yellow oil is, it sucks. Also, they used to mix the butter in when they popped it and had a separate popper for unbuttered. Now you have to drizzle the aforementioned yellow oil on top of the mountain of corn and only the top part gets covered. Ditto the salt. In the 1980s, my brother worked at an independent theater that used real butter on their popcorn. At least once a night, people would return to the counter and ask, “What’s this stuff all over my popcorn?” :rolleyes: :smack: For me, Campbell’s cream soups have become inedible in recent years. I understand they’ve been reformulated, and they’re nasty. I use organic soups from brands like Amy’s whenever I need a cream soup in a recipe; yes, it’s more expensive, but it tastes better and doesn’t give me indigestion. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/30 "2016-02-08T23:53:04Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#): > > **Comic books.** You used to get two or three complete stories with beginnings, middles and ends in an issue. You could safely buy back issues for a discount, with some assurance that you were getting complete stories. Now, it seems as if most comic books, especially those from the major publishers, DC and Marvel, feature an unending soap opera where there are no complete stories. Even the collected trade paperbacks often end on a cliffhanger. The artwork now is sometimes beautiful compared to the sometimes cheesy artwork back then, but then at other times, the modern artwork is so abstract that you can’t figure out what is going on in the story. Give me the “all in color for a dime” stories from the 1950s and 1960s anytime. I agree. Comic books, specifically those from Marvel & DC are **MUCH** worse these days. • $3.99-4.99 for 20 pages of a chapter of a longer story. Single issues no longer have a beginning, middle or end. Just starts off in the middle of a story and doesn’t end. • Characters die, come back to life, die, come back to life, etc… _yawn_ • Most of the artwork is horrible. Thanks in part to Photoshop colorers who don’t know anything about color, just make everything dark and muddy. • But perhaps the worst is NONE of these “hot artists” know a damn thing about visual story telling. They can’t compose a panel, they can’t establish location, that can’t tell a story sequentially. Oh, but they’ll stick in a bunch of “pin-up” pages, but story telling? Forget it. > [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > **MTV**. Of course “used to be” was a lonnnnnng time ago. Oddly enough, I think MTV years as a non-video network have long overtaken it’s video years. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/31 "2016-02-08T23:58:52Z")
Newspapers, for very much certain! I got an old 1987 Sunday Baltimore Sun from EBay through my nephew for Christmas last year, and it had practically everything you could ask for in a paper-- news, sports, weather, classifieds (employment and otherwise), Sunday comics, a TV guide, the national Parade mag, a local mag, the works. It took me a good long while to take it all in, and it only cost $1.25 then (I paid $25 for it through EBay, though). Nowadays, you pay double that for the local Greenville News here, and you blow through it in about 10 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/32 "2016-02-09T00:04:02Z")
Birthday and wedding cakes. The former used to have yummy dense buttercream frosting and the latter used to invariably be pound cake, frosted with the same. Now birthday cakes are iced with frothy whipped crap and wedding cakes are god knows what kind of foody carrot-champagne-hazelnut flavor of the week topped with an icky fondant shroud. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/33 "2016-02-09T00:05:32Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > [Chemistry sets](http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2013/vintage-chem/) used to be _really_ cool. 🆒 Damn! What kid didn’t want Uranium ore! ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/34 "2016-02-09T00:10:07Z")
Me. I used to be so cool, so excited by any new item, experience or friend, fun to be around. Now I’m a miserable old grumpy bastard. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/35 "2016-02-09T00:15:19Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Damn! What kid didn’t want Uranium ore! Just think, if you could get enough of your friends together… :eek: Yes, I know it’s only ore and won’t go critical. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nom\_de\_Plume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85f322/32.png) [@Nom\_de\_Plume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nom_de_Plume)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/36 "2016-02-09T00:37:03Z")
Band Aids. The new ones all seem to leave residue and tear when I try to remove them. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/37 "2016-02-09T00:41:49Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > \ > > Oddly enough, I think MTV years as a non-video network have long overtaken it’s video years. Oh, you’re absolutely correct; and it sucks! ---
**Author:** ![Calla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Calla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calla)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/38 "2016-02-09T00:48:40Z")
Tequila. It really messes me up now. Or maybe it’s me. I definitely cannot drink it in the quantities I once did. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/39 "2016-02-09T00:53:33Z")
Web pages that go crazy with collapsing and expanding sections, videos that play without being asked, stories scattered across a half-dozen columns, and if you want to read something interesting it’s always one small piece of information per page, forcing you to load the next page, just so you can be exposed to more collapsing and expanding sections, videos that play without being asked, etc. Whatever happened to simple pages with easy navigation and on-demand clicks? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/40 "2016-02-09T00:56:32Z")
I agree on the comic books. I find most of them unreadable. Nothing happens other than fight scenes, and I always hated fight scenes. Baked goods in general. Supermarket bakeries are bland and have limited selection. There are still some specialty bakeries that do a good job, but you have to search for them and it’s hard to get a decent bagel or croissant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556.md?page=3)