Aldi and Trader Joes will gladly take over all their locations. Those Germans don’t care about Red and Blue.

Go back before smoking sections, and it was the Wild West. Smoking was the default environment. Non-smokers were expected to remove themselves if they were bothered by it.

At the grocery store there would be a line of gumball machines for kids, right alongside a cigarette machine.

My high school had a smoking courtyard, right across from the cafeteria. We called it The Pit. Teachers smoked in the Teachers Lounge. It was famous for having a cloud of smoke pour out whenever the door opened.

I remember being in a doctor’s office as a kid, and having the doctor light up during the exam!

In many families, both parents would smoke in the car with the windows rolled up, and kids in the backseat, with no car seats or seat belts.

Nobody asked permission to smoke after a meal, they’d just light up, even if others were still eating. I remember my Dad getting offended when I asked him not to light his pipe at the dinner table while I was still eating.

People smoked at every table in any restaurant.

In offices, people smoked at their desks, until offices started having smoking rooms, and eventually chased them outside. Today I see workplaces where smoking isn’t allowed anywhere on the premises.

I worked in record stores starting in 1977, and there was always a standup ashtray at the intersections of aisles, filled with sand. At the end of the night, while the manager was counting the till, one of the clean up jobs was taking a sieve to each ashtray, and sifting out the cigarette butts. Every store I worked in had ashtrays, until I became a store manager, and banned smoking in my stores.

Almost EVERYBODY smoked in the 60s and 70s, except me.

Good suggestions. They actually like to get me little guitar stuff, or music books, I just have to steer it to them, so I put it all into an Amazon list. This year, I’m going to direct them to Stillwater, and give Amazon less business.

That’s even worse.

That’s a good thing. You don’t remember guys walking down the street, or getting on the subway, carrying a boom box on their shoulder, loudly blasting distorted music you don’t care to hear.

Now they just pump it directly into their ears. Let them destroy their own hearing, not everyone else’s. They make Bluetooth speakers if you need to broadcast your music to a group.

When I was young, I had a bucket list of all the fun gadgets I wanted - a camera, a video camera, a nice stereo system, a portable stereo system, a car stereo, lots of records, a TV, a VCR, a computer, etc. Making a Christmas list was easy, even if I knew I would never get 99% of it.

Now I get asked what I want for Christmas, and I have no idea what to say. My phone includes nearly everything I’ve ever wanted, including stuff I never thought of. Give me my phone, my guitar, a sandwich, and a bottle of water, and I’m pretty much set for life.

I think it’s fascinating that the powder knows how to work only on those over 35 years old. That’s some fine engineering work.

I get that, but Leatherman tools aren’t expensive because of their quality, which is excellent, they are expensive because of their brand. There are plenty of equally high quality tools that aren’t nearly as expensive. The Wetools knife that I have is a good example. Excellent design and high quality construction for a fraction of the cost.

I appreciate high quality in all things, but I have also learned in life that quality and cost often have little or no correlation. With a little research, I can usually find a tool, or guitar, or audio gear, etc. that is just as good, or even better, than the well-known gourmet brands, at a far cheaper price. Multitools are an excellent example of that.

Leatherman tools tend to be extremely expensive. Amazon has a lot of multitool options for far less. I have the one made by Wetools, which used to be about $20, which was a serious bargain, considering how well it was made. Now they are around $35, probably due to tariffs, but they are still a bargain.

If you carry one, you’ll discover all sorts of uses for it.

I’m just hoping to get through the next 6 months, and then the next 3 years, without the government harassing me or my family.

I just bought some cheap sunglass readers! $5 at Dollar Tree.

So we can shoot back at cops if they’re rubber bullets, paintballs, or some other “less lethal” ammo?

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot.

Dumbest movie title ever, but the best thing I’ve ever seen Sam Elliott do.

When the guy who composed the song “Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” died, I read that he called the song a “non-stop money making machine.”

It’s bad enough that they are using AI to create their content, but don’t they even proof-read it before uploading it? It seems like the most basic requirement, but they don’t even seem to be bothering with that.

I’ve been an Eno fan my entire life, but I had no idea that he invented that sound. I wonder if he gets a royalty for every sale?

It reminds me of the “DUN DUN” sound from Law & Order, composed by Mike Post. I read that he’s collected over $20 million in royalties from that sound alone.

I came to Lemmy after being permabanned on Reddit, and I didn’t have any problem signing up, logging in, or using it.

I also miss the smaller crowds, but I don’t miss the pages of puns, shitposts, trolls, 4Chan refugees, contrarians, novelty accounts, bots, Russian Propaganda Farmers, etc. I do miss the active forums for some of my favorite subjects, like guitars. The few forums that exist are very quiet, with posts every few days, weeks or even months, instead of constantly, like Reddit.

I find it much better for politics, if for no other reason that we can talk openly without getting suspended or banned.

Why do they have to reboot the exact same stories every decade or so?

I don’t remember this game, but I downloaded it, and it works great! I’ll be killing a lot of time with this.