I am bugged by...

This morning I read that and regret that in times when people grew taller and - yes - heavier (even if the  weight grows because of the height), they have to be tortured when they need, or want, to fly.
As a person of mumble years in age, I remember when...waxing nostalgically, ;-) although I did not make use of this when I flew over the Atlantic multiple times in the 60's and 70's. But I do remember dressing up, dining off real china with real flatware and sipping excellent cognac from real snifters! Even in Loftleidir, THE low cost line then! So what, we stopped in Keflavik to refuel, so what it went only to Luxembourg, and from there I had to take a - THEN direct - train to Vienna (which in 1. class was super.. had a compartment all to myself, pulled the two benches together and - voila - I had a queensize bed)! Plus Luxembourg was lovely little place to visit for a few hours after or before flying!
Ah, the GOOD old days... at least when flying ;-).







And then there is: myths and truths about healthcare here pre-ACA and elsewhere:


Here's what the United Nations International Health Organization says.
The Lancet study of a couple years ago is even more extensive.
Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis:
U.S. 65%
England 46%?
Canada 42%
Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received ?treatment within six months:?
U.S. 93%?
England 15%
Canada 43%?
Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:
U.S. 90%
England 15%
Canada 43%
Percentage referred to a medical specialist who see one within one month:
U.S. 77%
England 40%
Canada 43%
Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people:
U.S. 71
England 14
Canada 18
Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income, who say they are in "excellent health":
 U.S. 12%
England 2%
Canada 6%
And now for the last statistic:
National Health Insurance
U.S. NO
England YES
Canada YES?
Now these numbers seem to speak volumes, or do you believe UNIHO and Lancet lied?






And another thing that gets my goat (lol) - the  belief of "young ones" that they are the only ones to go green (lol) and this making the rounds on emails says it succinctly, at least IMO, but then per the young ones: "What does that "old fart" know!"  So I kept this which had been making the rounds some time ago via email:


Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older
woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags
weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing
back in my earlier days."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did
not care enough to save our environment for future generations."


She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to
the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and
sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and
over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing
back in our day.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused
for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags,
was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books.
This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our
use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling. Then we were
able to personalize our books.

OR as I did with Oma's hand crocheted string bag-similar to this one,

and used newspaper to fashion cornucopias for carrying fruit, eggs and more!

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every
store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't
climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two
blocks. And over there we used a carpet beater not a vacuum to clean rugs. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.  And where I grew up, we washed clothes by hand and and boiled the whites in a kettle over a fire, then wrung them out- also by hand- and carried them up 5 flights to the drying attic.. in winter the clothes were frozen flat! And needed little ironing!

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.


Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every
room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief
(remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. 


And over there a B/W TV set was a luxury..very few had one in the fifties.
We read books, and papers (which we also put to good use for many things-lining drawers, in the WC(yes, really-hint never use glossy papers!), cleaning windows, etc),
not kindles, we saw LIVE performances.
We met and had discussions, not stared at cell phones!

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have
electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile
item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion
it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up
an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower
that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to
go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.


We drank from fountains or faucets when we were thirsty instead of using a cup
or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled
writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the
razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just
because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Streetcar Vienna 1960's

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their
bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour
taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire
bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a
computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000
miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.
And some of us over there made our own "Hausmusik"


But isn't it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we
old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Feel free to  mention this to another selfish old person who needs a
lesson in conservation from smart  (really?) young people