Re: Things I never thought would disappear

On 11/10/2024 09:54, Joy Beeson wrote:

 Things I never thought would disappear:
  Stockings shaped to the leg
 

Oh, they're still out there, generally only in expensive silk for expensive women.  (I may or may not buy the occasional pair for a lady friend.  Or two.  :-) )

wool socks
 

Plenty of all-wool socks available here.

unbleached muslin
 

Ok, a bit harder, usually only available as an "organic" product, but in the fabric stores.

plain cream
 

In the refrigerator at the supermarket.

canned tomatoes  (You can get what we used to call "salad tomatoes",
but not tomatoes that are simply canned.)
 

Oh, so many varieties of canned tomatoes, local, overseas, Italian, ...

There's not even a retronym for petroleum jelly, which has been
replaced by white petroleum jelly  (What's now called "white petroleum
jelly" didn't even exist, at least not where laymen could see it.)
 

Okay, this one doesn't translate well.  Vaseline's been Vaseline for as long as I recall, and I don't see any change from fifty years ago.  What is "white petroleum jelly", pray tell?

Paperback books the size and shape of paperback books
 

The exist, but not as many publishers create them, true.

Newspapers.  Replaced by press-release papers that are fading fast.
 

Yes, declining, but we still have two dailies here, and a few weeklies and monthlies published on newsprint.

Old newspapers as a cheap, ubiquitous, and inexhaustable resource for
every purpose.
 

Well, yes, the newspapers are smaller, and so much more expensive!

Definitive stamps that allowed one to mail a letter without affixing
an opinion.  I didn't even know that plain, ordinary not-special
stamps *had* a name.
 

We've had variegated stamps for so long I'd almost forgotten that the Penny Black existed!

Road maps.
 

Got a 2021 Melways in the car!

Street signs are at risk of heading for the endangered list.  I got
very lost after one was rotated ninety degrees and nobody bothered to
twist it back.
 

Don't see much vandalism of that type here.

User manuals.   Nowadays, the time to go obsolete is about half the
time it takes to write a halfway-decent manual.
 

Management won't fund decent manuals.  And yes, the ones that exist are usually out of date.

The World Wide Web.  Nodes are still around, but one can't crawl from
one to another to another.
 

It's evolved, that's all.

Mattresses that it's possible to tuck a sheet under.
 

My mattress will happily keep a flat sheet on it, but I mostly use fitted.

Beds that one can sit on.
 

Not a problem here, I was with a friend who was bed shopping earlier this year, sittable beds were quite findable.  Even in IKEA.

Carpet samples
 

Again, we have them in the carpet stores here.
NOTE: YMMV as I live in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.  :-)
Cheers,
Gary B-)