It's 2017, and this bothers me.

@dave Yep, and I don’t see periods!

@narfcake Trust me, you don’t wanna see periods.

Besides…
/youtube MIBMMTIS

@Pavlov you should have him try to make a phone call on a payphone

@communist
Those exist.

I swear I saw one somewhere in the last two years.

Now where was that?

@communist I had one phone at home and one phone at the office right through the late 1980’s. I remember when it was a big deal to get touch tone service - and holy shit (!) – caller ID. I remember talking to people and having pleasurable, polite discourse.

I now have three cell phones that each have two different phone numbers and no one talks to anyone anymore, hardly at all. Text, text, text - - email, email, email – tweet, tweet, tweet - - post, post, post.

I’m often tempted to just disconnect. Everyone will think I died and they somehow missed my funeral.

@communist @f00l I know of one at least.

No idea if it’s still functional or not, however.

The real crime is the credit card surcharge pricing at that station.

I remember talking to people and having pleasurable, polite discourse.

@pavlov Not just on the phone, but in general. Words like “excuse me” and “thank you” are fewer and further used these days.

@Pavlov So help me, when I first saw the image, I thought your point was the source of narfcake’s outrage, especially in light of the “it’s 2017” preface.

@DrWorm It’s more a laugh than an outrage that VCRs are still being displayed in the window.

@f00l There’s one in the parking lot of the Family Dollar 2 blocks from my house. Not by the store, but all by itself on the street corner across the parking lot. It’s been there through two store changes, so it must belong to Ma Bell. It’s used quite a lot. I suspect for conducting untracable business dealings.

My best pay phone story:
We were vacationing in New Orleans, staying in a little historic hotel in the Garden District on the cable car line. We were riding on the open air cable car to the French Quarter. We were stopped at a light and there was a convenience store on a deep setback a couple of hundred feet from the road. There was a woman using the payphone in front, and she was talking so loudly that despite all the noise of a busy metropolitan street we could clearly hear every word she was saying. The old black guy sitting facing me leaned forward and said sotto voce, “Well I don’t rightly reckon she needs that phone.” The other passengers didn’t know why we were laughing our asses off.

@Pavlov I avoided texting for the first couple of years after I got a cell phone, I knew my first text would signal my last phone call. I love talking to people in person but I hate talking on the phone. When training my contractors I would tell them “If you want an answer, call me. If you want the right answer, email me.” It got a laugh, but they also understood that emailing me not only didn’t interrupt my work day, it gave me time to properly research their question and attach supporting documents. I made sure to answer any email within an hour of receipt, although the answer might be, “Research required, I’ll get back to you by 5”. My fellow employees were so jealous of my silent phone and the corresponding ability to focus on one thing till it was done.

@Pavlov Teach your son linear editing!

@ThomasF probably a Volkswagen Golf collector working there.

@medz Already got the P.G.A. Police Golf Academy on the line I can’t call them off now the sting is too far along

@ThomasF I think it says CASH FOR GOLB.

@cinoclav or Gob?

@medz I was so close to saying they mispelled Gob when I posted that originally.

@medz Am I the only person who thinks the guy looks like Donnie Jr.? Suit coat open, slicked back hair, off-kilter smile? Or have just been watching too much MSNBC?

@sanspoint It’s been there for decades. Defacing that would be wrong.

@narfcake

You could picket the place?

Perhaps if you also wore a
CASH FOR GOLD
or
CASH FIR GLOD
sign, they would pay you to picket them.

@f00l It’s about 35 miles away (a 2 hour drive).

@narfcake

@f00l It’s about 35 miles away (a 2 hour drive).

I’m sorry. Fucking LA.

One reason I like not living in That Big City Just East Of Here is that this is my idea of a proper “often less than two hour” drive:

PS starting location is not accurate and I have no idea what is at that address.

2 hours 10 minutes.
(won’t take that long at typical speeds for that road.)
147 miles.

@f00l Here in SoCal, everything’s like “at least a half hour away”.

@sanspoint Even easier: take your ever-handy roll of duct tape and just tape over the damn thing from the outside. Betcha nickel no one notices or cares.

@f00l um, don’t tell @narcake, but I think your " ’ " in “1980’s” is another illustration of his point about what is wrong with the window, because there are no periods between the numbers.
/giphy shhhh

@mollama

Ok.

I’m usually slumming these days with approx 3.14 and 3.3333… and 3-9 and my memories of the 1960’s.

Even the long term residents of East Lower Incorrectville have our little cultural equalizers.

I’ve practically forgotten all the formal grammar and punctuation rules I once knew well. I keep meaning to go visit them for a refresh.

I will usually yield to any competent copy-editor soul, but not to a grammar fascist sort.

@f00l oops, I wasn’t trying to be a grammar police, I just thought it was funny since the whole thread is Narfcake’s beef with 's after a non-possessive acronym then your response included one on a non-possesive year. Unfortunately for Narfcake, it’s in our cultural norm to do that, call all facial tissue Kleenex, and look to the web for entertainment when we all should probably doing something else.
/image procrastinate

@mollama
Old rules against delineate today’s new imperatives.
Or at least today’s commonplaces.

That’s what makes it fun.

It is true that I now barely know grammar and punctuation, commonly go by habits or instinct, and especially get the subjunctive case wrong constantly. and sometimes bother to fix it (I know intellectually, but the habit is tenuous).

PS I did not think you were being judgmental.

… and look to the web for entertainment when we all should probably doing something else.

@mollama Meow?

https://shirt.woot.com/offers/gotta-watch-em-all?ref=meh_com

@narfcake
We are getting what I think is called s “Kitty Cafe” here.

@alphapeaches

I wouldn’t hire people who were bad at grammar or punctuation or sentences structure or conveying clear meaning either, if I ran a company whose product was the written word.

If I were hiring roustabouts or plumbers, I probably wouldn’t look into it too deeply.

@alphapeaches yes. 12…maybe going on 13…

@ConradHilton I noticed it back in 2008 on the way to a job site. It was outdated then already.

@narfcake they were looking for a VCR at one point during Cowboy Bebop – it’s funny, because at the time I thought “but they’ll be everywhere, even then”, but I don’t know if I’d be able to find one these days. It’s good to know that pawn shops are owned by them.

@capguncowboy Thrift stores sell VCRs.

@narfcake I still OWN a VCR… and some (kid) things to play in it.

@cranky1950 I had no reason to be reminded of it in 2016, but one of the projects I was looking at was a pawn shop and it’s going “green” now.

@narfcake
How does a pawn shop “go green”?

@narfcake you should have put it in the refrigerator.

@f00l There’s about 420 ways to do so.

@narfcake

I guess I meant to ask:

What does it mean for a pawn shop to “go green”?

Does it mean what it means for other businesses? Or after there special “pawn shop” considerations for “going green”?

@f00l That location was a pawn shop. It’s closed. A new business is moving in. It’s green.

A lot of legalities – and not so legalities – exist in that line of business. That’s not for me to judge so long as we’re paid for our work.

@narfcake Just slip out the back, Jack, make a new plan, Stan
Don’t need to be coy, Roy, just listen to me
Hop on the bus, Gus, don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee, and get yourself free

@cranky1950

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going

Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody’s got a hungry heart

@f00l
Someone said the Big Man
May be joining us soon
But I never was the type to hang
With the harbingers of doom
And this party is addictive
Self-destructive, no doubt
So I hope that someone saves a seat for me
On the last plane out

@meekers They’re still in business; a different pawn show in a different part of LA was what our project was. Looking at it reminded me of this one that I passed by years ago, though, and made me wonder (and look up) whether the big proclamation of VCRs was still up on their window.

@narfcake This story keeps changing. We need a special pawngate prosecutor.

@cranky1950 You’re cranky.

@meekers I can send you a VCR if you want. LOL