# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/161 "2016-02-12T20:11:11Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > 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. Preach it Brother! Buttercreame or nothing! ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/162 "2016-02-13T04:44:18Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > WTF? The 60s was a revolution in comics. It actually preceded the new hollywood cinema by half a decade or more. It was for kids of course, but the college students and adults started to read them, and collect old back issues, and publish fanzines…in the 60s… Maybe we’re thinking of different comics. I was thinking of “Batmite”-era Batman, “Snapper Carr”-era JLA , Jimmy Olsen as “Elastic Lad”, and their lot. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/163 "2016-02-13T05:12:27Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > Maybe we’re thinking of different comics. I was thinking of “Batmite”-era Batman, “Snapper Carr”-era JLA , Jimmy Olsen as “Elastic Lad”, and their lot. Grin! That’s the model I take away from 60s and early 70s comics. I remember how impressed I was when the Teen Titans “grew up” and had stories about drug addiction. Not Mr. Myxyzptlk, not Jimmy Olsen meets Julius Caesar, not the Newsboy Legion finding Nazis in New York, but something real, and scary, and important, and something that even superheroes can’t just beat up with their fists or powers. That was when comics “came of age” for me: the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/164 "2016-02-13T05:28:03Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > Maybe we’re thinking of different comics. I was thinking of “Batmite”-era Batman, “Snapper Carr”-era JLA , Jimmy Olsen as “Elastic Lad”, and their lot. DC was pretty square, but all those things did happen in the 60s. I think what you’re saying is that DC was stuck in the 50s then. Batmite might be from the 50s. The Rockets Blast was founded in the early 60s. Before that no one thought a comic was collectible. (Maybe there were EC collectors before) Now people buy them and slab them without reading them. Ground zero for fandom as you know it today is the Marvel 60s and the collectors consciousness. The 70s was a steep downhill slide. College students read Marvel comics. It broke the business open. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/165 "2016-02-13T17:34:24Z")
Friendly Restaurants used to be great when they were all in Massachusetts. Then they went national and became Friendly’s. I hate them. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/166 "2016-02-13T23:13:37Z")
Safes. I recently wanted to buy a small safe to put in the bedroom. What’s available these days might be adequate to keep out my 12-yr-old grandson, for a while anyway, but are otherwise pretty crappy, for way too much money. Belts - I haven’t bought a belt in the last 10 years that has lasted longer than a year. The belt I have on now is 30+ years old and is starting to look a little tired. I’m considering spending the extra money ~$50.00) and buying one or two of those reinforced belts people who carry guns buy to support their holsters. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/167 "2016-02-13T23:34:18Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Vehicles now get 100K miles as a matter of course. Much longer between service intervals. breakdowns are fewer. I agree, it is amazing how reliable even the cheapest new cars are. As long as you change the oil regularly, they run forever. It used to be noteworthy if a car had over 100k miles. ---
**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 14, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/168 "2016-02-14T02:56:01Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I agree, it is amazing how reliable even the cheapest new cars are. As long as you change the oil regularly, they run forever. It used to be noteworthy if a car had over 100k miles. This is true. OTOH I remember the owners manual for my parents 1967 car had a blurb arguing the merits of two years vs three years for car payments/trade in/buy a new one. They said the two year plan was cheaper. And one of my friends recently had two drivers side outside mirrors in a month taken out by collision when she had it parked at work. Cost her $350 each time to replace them. But who knows, maybe you save money with cars nowadays over a few decades. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2016, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/169 "2016-02-14T05:33:09Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > You could just expand that to journalism. No, the media haven’t changed much. > [@](#): > > Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge. –Knoll’s Law of Media Accuracy, Erwin Knoll, editor, “The Progressive” > [@](#): > > It is a melancholy truth that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. > > Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. –Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Norvell (June 11, 1807) ---
**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 15, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/170 "2016-02-15T00:47:04Z")
My Girl scout cookie order came in today. These boxes are elf sized. What did Thomas Jefferson have to say about that? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/171 "2016-02-15T14:40:56Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > As a guy who grew up with Jimmy Olsen comics…no way. They’re light-years ahead of where they were in the 60s and 70s. “Jimmy Olsen is a Lobster!” “Jimmy Olsen is a Martian!” “Bizzarro Jimmy Olsen!” Pee-You!.. Ya wanna step outside, bub? I just bought an early Jimmy Olsen annual (so I’ve been bribing myself: if I get enough work done by noon, I can stop at a bar for lunch and read another Jimmy story). So my lunch hours have been full of Jimmy The Giant Turtle Boy, Jimmy The Human Porcupine, and Jimmy The Alien (Superman recognized that he had turned into a native of Jupiter, and knew they were friendly…sheesh). But the worse the science is, perversely, the more fun it is. Not to mention I can browse the Johnson Smith ads and dream of owning X-Ray Specs and “amazing my friends by printing real American dollar bills from strips of blank paper”. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/172 "2016-02-15T17:35:55Z")
> [@Bumbazine](#): > > Belts - I haven’t bought a belt in the last 10 years that has lasted longer than a year. The belt I have on now is 30+ years old and is starting to look a little tired. I’m considering spending the extra money ~$50.00) and buying one or two of those reinforced belts people who carry guns buy to support their holsters. I’m in the same boat. I have a nice black dress belt that I bought many years ago, that is finally starting to look worn-out. I also have a collection of newer belts, probably half a dozen of them, all of which have lasted about a year before they started to look like crap. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/173 "2016-02-15T20:44:34Z")
A few years ago, one of my favorite stores started stocking jewelry made by a local artist who used watch parts to create everything from simple pendants to elaborate necklaces. I wondered why she would have so many watch parts, as some of the pieces seemed to feature all watch parts – tiny screws, numbers from the faces, and various connecting parts in addition to the really cool gears. Then my cute little ‘fashion’ watches started falling apart. These things weren’t cheap, yet the bands were cracking, and the gears had started coming out of mesh. It’s like they were meant to be disposable. I imagine that she started out with a similar watch, maybe smashed it out of frustration, and was struck by inspiration after seeing all the little bits. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/174 "2016-02-15T20:53:11Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > A few years ago, one of my favorite stores started stocking jewelry made by a local artist who used watch parts to create everything from simple pendants to elaborate necklaces. I wondered why she would have so many watch parts, as some of the pieces seemed to feature all watch parts – tiny screws, numbers from the faces, and various connecting parts in addition to the really cool gears. > > Then my cute little ‘fashion’ watches started falling apart. These things weren’t cheap, yet the bands were cracking, and the gears had started coming out of mesh. It’s like they were meant to be disposable. I imagine that she started out with a similar watch, maybe smashed it out of frustration, and was struck by inspiration after seeing all the little bits. Fir her, that makes cheap watches \*better \*than they used to be. I buy lots of cheap watches – Amazon has hundreds of pages of watches below $6. Half of them are deal within a month, but the survivors are still worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/175 "2016-02-15T22:32:17Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Ya wanna step outside, bub? . . . [Hey, if it helps any, I utterly adore this Jimmy Olsen special.](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xIszi-Zhlxo/TZSCdYSKYiI/AAAAAAAALdQ/moOk_nwM-xc/s1600/jimmy+olsen.jpg) Over time, I’ve bought four copies of it, to give away to friends. It really got me over my anti-Olsen prejudice. It’s funny as anything (a very “Joss Whedon” tone of humor) and the art is crisp and clean. Jimmy Olsen, giant turtle-man…not so much. “‘Then I must go for my axe,’ said Gimli.” (But my axe is forged from rainbow Kyrptonite!) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/176 "2016-02-16T14:55:50Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > [Hey, if it helps any, I utterly adore this Jimmy Olsen special.](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xIszi-Zhlxo/TZSCdYSKYiI/AAAAAAAALdQ/moOk_nwM-xc/s1600/jimmy+olsen.jpg) Over time, I’ve bought four copies of it, to give away to friends. It really got me over my anti-Olsen prejudice. It’s funny as anything (a very “Joss Whedon” tone of humor) and the art is crisp and clean. > > Jimmy Olsen, giant turtle-man…not so much. > > “‘Then I must go for my axe,’ said Gimli.” (But my axe is forged from rainbow Kyrptonite!) Hey, thanks! I only shop the _“3 fer a buck”_ bins, and had found Issue 4 of that run…and I’ve been trying to remember to ask about more when I’m in the shop. So it’s on my \*Read This, Dammit! \*list now. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/177 "2016-02-16T23:06:09Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Hey, thanks! I only shop the _“3 fer a buck”_ bins, and had found Issue 4 of that run…and I’ve been trying to remember to ask about more when I’m in the shop. So it’s on my \*Read This, Dammit! \*list now. Huh? Issue four? Run? It’s a stand-alone special, innit? Can you point me to more? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/178 "2016-02-17T14:39:56Z")
No, you’re right – I was mistaking it for the Jimmy Olsen backup feature that was a hoot. You’d be reading an average adventure of Superman, and then BAM! Super FUN with Jimmy! Oh, okay… your Jimmy One-Shot IS the backup feature, collected and expanded. From [mycomicshop.com](http://mycomicshop.com): > [@](#): > > The hit ACTION COMICS co-feature that everyone’s talking about gets its own collection, reprinting the first four parts of the story and presenting 30 all-new pages that bring ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Big Week’ to a ridiculously over-the-top close! When Jimmy Olsen finds out that his ex-girlfriend, Chloe Sullivan, is spending a week writing a profile about a young big-shot LexCorp employee, Jimmy is determined to prove to Chloe that he can have just as exciting and interesting a week. Cue bar fights with drunken aliens, a visit to the Yarn Barn with Supergirl, Fifth Dimensional stalkers, and Jimmy Olsen: Space Warrior! ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/179 "2016-02-17T16:51:38Z")
Batman. We had Adam West as Batman, Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, and Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. Game, set, match. Chemistry sets had real chemicals, today’s have what- food color? Plane travel- the fares were controlled and they had to fight for your business by their service. Now you’re a freaking sardine paying $25 per bag. Comic books. You could buy one comic per year or three, they could be read by themselves as a standalone story. Now the casual reader has been shown the door. Youth baseball. We would get on our bikes and run around the neighborhood getting up our own games, no umpires, no uniforms. Nowadays a kid can’t pick up a bat without it being scheduled by adults. College sports. You could buy a ticket without taking out a second mortgage. Your team wore its real colors every week, not black or pink or something else. When you were on television it was a big fucking deal. NHL. Now they’ve got the ridiculous shootouts in the regular season and teams in regions that don’t give a shit about hockey. MLB. Designated hitter and interleague play. Wild card teams. Yuck. Factory jobs. Used to be a guy could walk out of high school, into a factory, and get a job that supported his family and he could send them to college. No more. Worker benefits. Defined benefit plans are pretty much gone for the younger generation. If your savings tank, sucks to be you. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556/180 "2016-02-17T21:10:59Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Batman. We had Adam West as Batman, Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, and Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. Game, set, match. You forgot Julie Newmar as the Catwoman. :o [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-worse-than-it-used-to-be/745556.md?page=10)