# This still exists?? Your moments right out of the past. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 4, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565 "2018-12-04T21:05:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/41 "2018-12-06T00:55:33Z")
> [@K2500](#): > > Last time I saw someone whip out a phone book it raised literally all the eyebrows in the room. More recently, I offered an extra phone book to the owner of a craft store I regularly patronized, and where we had social nights. She replied, “But we have wi-fi” and I answered, “But what if it’s down?” :o That this would happen had honestly not occurred to her; maybe she tossed the book in the recycling bin as soon as I left, but I did insist that she take it. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/42 "2018-12-06T00:57:04Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Where did you deliver them? There is a non-zero chance you worked for me or my family’s business. PM me if you don’t want that info in the open, I won’t be offended if you don’t want me to know at all. 🙂 I’ll PM the location; I did sign up because I had just decided to retire and move back to my real hometown, and we had a week of temperate summer weather coming up, so I thought that I might as well do it. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2018, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/43 "2018-12-06T01:37:07Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > I would love the return of pull top tabs on sodas. The joy of putting it back in the can and forgetting about it until it ends up on your mouth on the last gulp! :smack: PRICELESS! Spent a week in Chinatown (NYC) back in the 70s, and the teenagers taught us to open those vintage pull tabs halfway, insert a straw, then carry the can with a finger through the tab pull. So we spent a week strutting down Mulberry St. with our new Chinese peeps and our Cokes swinging from a finger, feeling SO cool… > [@](#): > > Or drop it on the ground. Step on it barefoot and gash your foot open. Yikes!! What do kids these days think when they hear Jimmy Buffet singing “I blew out my filp-flop, _stepped on a pop top_… cut my heel, had to cruise on back home.”? ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/44 "2018-12-06T01:41:35Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > More recently, I offered an extra phone book to the owner of a craft store I regularly patronized, and where we had social nights. She replied, “But we have wi-fi” and I answered, “But what if it’s down?” :o That this would happen had honestly not occurred to her; maybe she tossed the book in the recycling bin as soon as I left, but I did insist that she take it. The majority of my interneting is done from my phone, I’d be doubly screwed if it went down. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/45 "2018-12-06T01:42:47Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Just this morning, somebody handed me a phone book which was delivered to her home. At one time (barely over a decade ago!) my family delivered more than 40,000,000 of the things a year, this is the first new one I’ve seen since… 2016, I think. I have a phone book! I ordered it for collecting and pressing leaves and plant specimens. But I don’t miss the days when I’d see trucks delivering untold reams of phone books knowing that most would get thrown away. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/46 "2018-12-06T02:24:11Z")
Just fyi, **nearwildheaven** did not deliver one of our books. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/47 "2018-12-06T02:42:15Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Or drop it on the ground. Step on it barefoot and gash your foot open. Yikes!! Or as Jimmy puts it: "_I blew out my flip flop, Stepped on a pop top; Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home…"_ ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/48 "2018-12-06T02:44:37Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Also from Japan: fax machines everywhere. “_Fax it_? You want me to FAX it?!? Well, i can’t Fax from where I am.” “Where is that , sir?” “2018 Lady, 2018.” ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/49 "2018-12-06T18:31:26Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > While Washington has good reason to have a lot of ferries in the Puget Sound area it’s surprising that there are still some river ferries in Oregon. (Plus one ferry between OR and WA.) There are 3 ferries on the Willamette which isn’t all that wide in those areas. Just put in a bridge. It’s $5 to cross at Canby! And the free I-5 bridge is 3 miles away. “Ferry” doings generally – an interesting situation which still obtains in England’s most easterly counties of Norfolk and Suffolk (by general repute, not a part of the country significantly on the cutting edge of progress). About fifteen “beeline” miles east of the city of Norwich (Norfolk’s “county town”, generally reckoned the region’s chief city) is the fair-sized town of Great Yarmouth, on the North Sea coast. The river Yare runs between the two, meeting the sea at Great Yarmouth; but winding around some way to the south, taking about twenty miles between the two communities. There’s a road bridge across the Yare some three miles east of Norwich; several others within Great Yarmouth; but none in between – and in between, only one modest and small-time, on minor roads, ferry for motor vehicles across the river – located about two-thirds of the way from Norwich to Great Yarmouth. This situation causes considerable inconvenience to local residents, and visitors; but “thus it is”-- and seemingly, remedying it is not an urgent thing on anyone’s agenda. (Which I rather like – of course, I don’t have to live in those parts.) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/50 "2018-12-06T18:45:33Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Forcing you to cruise on back home. I’m wasting away.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/51 "2018-12-06T18:47:19Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Forcing you to cruise on back home. We took our kids to a Jimmy Buffett concert years ago & I had to explain to them what those lyrics meant. Also something that _should_ be an anachronism is the meter reader who physically comes out to my house every month to read the meter. How is this _not_ automated by now??? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/52 "2018-12-06T18:51:11Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > We took our kids to a Jimmy Buffett concert years ago & I had to explain to them what those lyrics meant. > > Also something that _should_ be an anachronism is the meter reader who physically comes out to my house every month to read the meter. How is this _not_ automated by now??? Meter readers are checking for fraud & doing meter inspections, not doing billing. At least around here that’s how they are used. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2018, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/53 "2018-12-07T04:56:20Z")
Gave a friend a fun birthday present: a vintage typewriter. His (grown) daughter was stunned by the odd hoops she had to jump through to make simple characters… an exclamation mark was made by typing a period, then backspace, then typing a single quotation mark. ---
**Author:** ![BenedictusXIV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b19c9b/32.png) [@BenedictusXIV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BenedictusXIV)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/54 "2018-12-07T13:49:21Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > About 10 years ago when I was living in Japan, my employer gave me tickets to travel from my small town to a bigger city. The train platform was a small concrete pad, sans building, in the middle of a corn field. When the train came, it was one car with a diesel motor. I was the only passenger for about an hour until we reached the trunk line. All I could think was ‘I am the world’s luckiest introvert.’ I would bet that line is still running but I can’t remember the name. I used to fly from North Platte, NE to Denver every Sunday evening and more often than not I was the only passenger on the flight. What gave me greater joy was the boarding procedure in North Platte. Apparently when it comes to these, one size fits all. So I would sit there by myself, less than 10 ft from the lady as she would broadcast over the PA system that ALL passengers for flight blabla had to go to gate number ONE and commence boarding. No stewardess on the puddle jumper though, so in case of sudden loss of pressure I would have been clueless what to do. ---
**Author:** ![BenedictusXIV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b19c9b/32.png) [@BenedictusXIV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BenedictusXIV)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/55 "2018-12-07T13:52:17Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > We took our kids to a Jimmy Buffett concert years ago & I had to explain to them what those lyrics meant. > > Also something that _should_ be an anachronism is the meter reader who physically comes out to my house every month to read the meter. How is this _not_ automated by now??? It is. Only people who go to Jimmy Buffett concerts get monthly inspections. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/56 "2018-12-07T13:58:47Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > OP again. > > I was feeling guilty about not being able to remember the name of the village, so I tried to figure it out and check the result on google maps. It’s Chartham, just outside of Canterbury, and look at this: > > [Google Maps](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.257173,1.0176665,3a,75y,231.04h,83.88t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1skkahy6qbPW-Bw0ZmtKOyCQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656) > > The google maps image actually catches a level crossing keeper in the act!! > > (Though not the one we met :(). > > I mean, what are the chances of\* that\*? > > j If the keeper does it four times every hour and assuming it takes 30 seconds (and I guess it takes longer for both sides), the chances are 1 in 30 for catching the keeper closing the gate and 1 in 30 of carching him or her opening the gate, so 1 in 15 in total. If you take into account to possibility that the google car had to wait because the barrier was closed when it arrived and then took the picture as soon as it passed through, when the keeper was still visible, the odds rise, and the keeper was caught in the act of opening the passage for cars. So I would say 1 in 10, of the cuff. ---
**Author:** ![BenedictusXIV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b19c9b/32.png) [@BenedictusXIV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BenedictusXIV)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/57 "2018-12-07T14:48:59Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > …So I would say 1 in 10, of the cuff. My wife can be seen 5 times on StreetView (that we know of) in different locations. My guess is that she is the most streetviewed person in the world, but I have no numbers to back that up. What are the odds of that? My late father often stated that he used to know a statistician who drowned in water that was 1’ deep on average. Drifting off-topic. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/58 "2018-12-07T15:32:00Z")
> [@BenedictusXIV](#): > > My wife can be seen 5 times on StreetView (that we know of) in different locations. My guess is that she is the most streetviewed person in the world, but I have no numbers to back that up. > > What are the odds of that?.. From experience, I would caution against asking that question on this board…😃 j ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/59 "2018-12-07T15:45:40Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > If the keeper does it four times every hour and assuming it takes 30 seconds (and I guess it takes longer for both sides), the chances are 1 in 30 for catching the keeper closing the gate and 1 in 30 of carching him or her opening the gate, so 1 in 15 in total. If you take into account to possibility that the google car had to wait because the barrier was closed when it arrived and then took the picture as soon as it passed through, when the keeper was still visible, the odds rise, and the keeper was caught in the act of opening the passage for cars. So I would say 1 in 10, of the cuff. I’m at risk of hijacking a thread I started.\* Well.\* \*\* Parde\*\*l: not sure if you saw posts 27 and 31. In any case you have addressed some of the issues from #31 in your calculation. But we’re all making assumptions - what we need is data. **casdave** kindly provided two more data points (post 29)\*; I have checked both of these and neither includes a crossing keeper “_caught in the act_”, so we’re at 33%, but on very limited data. If we can rustle up enough observations of other manned crossings, we can sort this out once and for all. So, any more (?UK) manned level crossings out there? j - Lest there is a call for cites: https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=%213m2%212sen%214v0%216m8%211m7%211shkUv5wHQBJtKB7zvhlTcIQ%212m2%211d53.979194%212d-1.2011397%213f102.86%214f8.051%215f0.75 https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=%213m2%212sen%214v0%216m8%211m7%211sYUyo0lRBJJNJVmoevkAO6A%212m2%211d53.9844124%212d-1.2222164%213f27.37%214f7.895%215f0.75 ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565/60 "2018-12-07T22:09:08Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Also from Japan: fax machines everywhere. > [@DrDeth](#): > > “_Fax it_? You want me to FAX it?!? Well, i can’t Fax from where I am.” > “Where is that , sir?” > > “2018 Lady, 2018.” In my corner of the medical industry, fax machine are still commonly used. Part of it is, I think, legal issues over doctor’s orders and signatures. There are ways to do online verified signatures and the doctor’s orders and signatures could be scanned, of course, but it’s a lot easier just to fax the paperwork. Part of it is that a lot people still aren’t that internet savvy. I deal with a lot of doctor’s offices that either don’t have a scanner or don’t have anyone who knows how to use one. I also deal with more than a few doctor’s offices that don’t have a webpage or online presence. But _everyone_ has fax machines. And part of it is sheer inertia. I used to work for a small local lab that got bought out by a big regional lab which in turn was bought out by a huge national lab corporation. The huge national lab corporation does all of its client supply management online, except… The big regional lab was owned by a private equity fund and they tended to do a lot of penny-wise-pound-foolish penny pinching. Their entire client supply system was conducted with fax machines and a mix of hand-written(!) records and ad hoc Excel spreadsheets. After several years, they’ve finally been fully digested by the huge national corporation, except for some odd legacy systems, like that many of their old clients insist on continuing to fax in supply orders instead of using the online ordering system. The small local lab still operates as a semi-independent entity, and it still does its client supply management through fax machines. It’s a specialized lab that does work and uses supplies that no one else in the company does. Instead of going to all of the expense and bother of integrating this tiny odd bit of the company into the online ordering system, a decision was made on high to just leave well-enough alone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-still-exists-your-moments-right-out-of-the-past/825565.md?page=4)