Which reminds me, horse racing used to be better.
By far the worst part is listening to other idiots prattle on about all kinds of bullshit to their friends as they ride the bus, use the restroom, wait for their meals, and so on. There’s no such thing as “privacy” any more; neither are people discrete or considerate.
“Hmmm, I’ve got nothing to do for the next half hour, so I’ll whip out my mobile and subject all of these strangers to some drivel about my private life. Makes me feel really cool and important!” 
ARRRRGGGHHHHH!!! THE FOOT!!! :eek:
Well hell, that’s your problem! Shell out a few bucks more and buy yourself a decent brand!
I’d rather guzzle Super America soda pop* than 7-11 beer! YIK!!! :smack:
*Remember the blue cream soda that was like drinking Windex? Mmmmmm, good times! :o
Taco Bell. 25 years ago a bean burrito was a good size for 79 cents. Three of them would fill me up, four would have me stuffed. And that was teenage me, who ate a lot more than I do today. Now, their bean burritos are these piddly little things about half the size they used to be. I can easily eat five or six of them.
My vote goes to Hostess cupcakes. When I started living in Canada, I went out and bought a big box for the first time in more than 20 years. I opened it up and found the damned things had shrunk by at least a third! Not only are they smaller, they taste a lot more artificial than I remember from when I was a kid.
Seven-Up doesn’t taste right anymore either, and not only because the sugar/syrup content is much higher. When I was growing up, it had a lovely smooth, almost creamy flavor. Now it has a sharp citrus bite. Sprite nowadays actually tastes a lot more like the way I remember Seven-Up used to taste.
Good God! John Romita Jr., John Byrne, Brent Anderson, whoever the hell it is doing Dr. Strange right now – Chris Bachalo – and how about lesser-known geniuses such as Rod Espinosa – they all blow Kirby out of the water. Kirby’s style was angular, wooden, stilted, and hyper-ornate. He’s much too “iconic.”
(Here’s an example of Rod Espinosa having fun. See how very superior it is to Kirby playing much the same game.)
No, I missed the whole Fourth World/New Gods thing. I only started admiring DC when the Teen Titans came along and started a big change away from the silliness that had been so pervasive so long.
Children playing / socializing.
Decades ago, kids would be kicked out of the house to play with other neighborhood kids outside until sundown, using their imaginations to keep themselves entertained and using their bodies for locomotion: Running, skateboarding, bicycling. The whole neighborhood was their playground.
No screens, no phones, no helicopter parents watching their only child armored up like a football player just to ride their bike alone in a circle in front of their house.
“Play dates” wasn’t even a thing. It was just “It’s not raining, go outside.”
Today on NBC. When I was born at the top of 1981, Today had Jane Pauley, Tom Brokaw, Willard Scott, and Gene Shalit (and Bryant Gumbel replaced Tom on 1/4/82, one day after my 1st birthday; Bryant had just come off NBC’s Sunday NFL coverage of the 1981 season). The opening of the show then was incredibly low-key and quiet and understated (as illustrated by this Today opening of Bryant’s debut of 1/4/82; he opened with a shot of the Chicago skyline from WMAQ Channel 5 [Chicago NBC O&O]):
Nowadays, the show is 4 hrs. long (up from the 2 it was then), and it opens every day with screaming fans on the plaza (quite honestly, not my cup of tea).It’s still that way some places.
Cadbury Egg’s have also shrunken. They used to be egg size, now they are smaller.
Annoying.
I’ll second and third this. Chemistry sets have seriously wimped out over the past few decades, where now they only have things devoted to “goop” and fragrances and the like.
The chemistry sets I had let you make plastics, coat things with gold, perform electroplating, Make fluorescent paint, and the like. Back in the fifties they had “atomic energy” sets with radioactive pins, scintillation screens, and little geiger counters. Today you can’t even mix ferric ammonium sulfate and sodium ferrocyanide to make Prussian Blue. That used to be the sort of standard “vanilla” experiment it seemed that every chemistry kit had.
If you really long for the Good Old Days, and can’t afford to buy a vintage set, have a look at one of the best Chemistry Guides for Young Kids, The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments:
http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LEVz7r6LlWT1QAYulXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyczVpdTJmBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwM4BHZ0aWQDQjE1NjNfMQRzZWMDc3I-/RV=2/RE=1455053164/RO=10/RU=http%3A%2F%2Flibrary.sciencemadness.org%2Flibrary%2Fbooks%2FBrent_GBC.pdf/RK=0/RS=najo7kDeZJ6WeJtMVAXQpsxNaKc-
No wimping out with this book. It tells you how to make chlorine gas (and handle it safely). It has you igniting magnesium, igniting pure hydrogen, and doing all sorts of burning experiments. It tells you how to safely taste hydrochloric acid. But it also tells you how to make two or three different kinds of plastic, and soap. And you learn a LOT of practical and theoretical chemistry in the process. I grew up on this book, and still have my copy.
You might be a little frustrated because some of it has been made obsolete – nobody makes batteries with carbon rods and manganese dioxide anymore – you can’t cut open an alkaline battery and get the same stuff. And they’ve stopped selling home chemicals at stores, dammit. But with perseverance you should be able to cobble a set together.
I was lucky, as a kid. I had older male cousins who usually didn’t use their kits, so I inherited them. I also had a chemist uncle who gave me old test tubes and random labware.
And there was an episode of original-recipe Dallas that was aired Friday, Jan. 16, 1981 that illustrates this. It was called “End of the Road: Part 1,” and it was in the first scene of the episode (I don’t know how to explain it any further beyond that, though).
Me, I’ll take Kirby any day. Your cited example is Kirby in his prime, and to me it’s superior.
One of my clients owns four DD stores. As you say, all the donuts are baked at a central kitchen serving perhaps two dozen locations. The interesting part is they are sold at cost; DD doesn’t make a nickel off the donuts. They are a loss leader for the fabulously inflated price of their coffee.
McDonald’s. Especially the fries. Now they’re only good for about 3 minutes in the car. Taking them home-forget it. And Wendy’s too, as someone said up thread. Just not as good.
Kraft Mac & Cheese in the blue box, the one you make at home. Used to love that, now it’s plain nasty, what did they do to it. If they ever futz with Stouffers mac, that’s it for me.
Pest control chemicals. And weed killing chemicals. They used to work. Now they don’t kill us, but they don’t kill anything else either.
It’s sort of a poor choice of comparisons (I know nothing much about comics themselves). The woman looks light and airy which suits her. Galactus’s linework and colors look solid and massive which suits him. The woman would look far different with Kirby’s heavy lines and solid colors and the Galactus would look like he was made of sytrofoam drawn in Espinosa’s style.
Very true. Kirby was not at his best drawing women. I admit that there are many examples of sexy women that he has drawn, but Kirby was better and more comfortable drawing things that looked as if they were chiseled out of stone.
Since Kraft (Mondelēz International as it is now called) took over most confectionery companies like Cadbury, the quality of their local product has plummeted. I remember tasting Cadbury products abroad and thinking they were inferior to what I was used to but now they’re all the same muck.
Cats and dogs.
When I was a kid, dogs and cats all liked me, they were lots of fun and always wanted to play. Over the decades they’ve developed some kind of *holier than thou *attitude, so I no longer like them. Guinea pigs are still pretty cool, however.
Tastykake wrappers.
Having grown up in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, I recall when Tastykakes were wrapped in wax paper, not stupid cellophane. They were easy and fun to unwrap before shoving them down your gullet.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they started wrapping cats and dogs in cellophane when you buy them at the pet store.