Could have least added a geezer mode !
sheesh


✌🏻

probably put it up high on a shelf for a sick joke.

I can not access it.

I see the Skinner mode button, but the text is of a lighter color, and will not let be click on the button. I can change to the 3 other modes, but not the skinner mode.

or something like that. Look for font size and make it smaller.Skinner mode should pop in.

It worked, but I am now slowly getting used to DU4.

Thanks for the twisted memories. All things change except for people’s resistance to change.

I suspect that most of us who did hang out at Walter's have gaps in our memories, though at this point, I can't be sure.

I guess I should be nicer to ya--your head hasn't been on straight since Walter's. - - -

It is impossible to remember any particular time, except the last one. Walter had come home from Vietnam. He had been shot in the back by "friendly fire," and was in a wheel chair. As a result of his service, he would join Veterans Against the War, He could party like few others I've ever met.

I've fallen on an uneven part of my lawn numerous times. The neighborhood kids might think it's funny, but I don't. Pisses me off when they ask if they can help me with something, after I've forgotten why I was out there.

... when you've been telling them to stay off your lawn?

to grumpy old men. Trust me on this. It is especially true when you demand two opposite things from them. They can't handle the truth.

But just pot. When those other "lines" came in style so that people could dance non-stop for hours, it was expensive. I can be anxious then depressed for free.

Are kids these days too lazy to slice their own bread?

When I was young, we bought our loaves whole, like God intended, and sliced them ourselves, dammit!

These fucking kids, I tell ya, they don't know real bread. They buy specialty breads from fucking stores! My poor mother slaved over the Franklin wood stove, making something that we called "hard tack." We appreciated it until she died, then it became the stuff of cruel jokes at family gatherings. Kids these days have no respect.

😀😀😀

young people that, and they just laugh at me. I'm glad youngsters today don't know how to make paper air planes like we did back in the day, or they'd probable throw them at me.

😀😀

I mean, have you ever tried to make a paper airplane out of a .pdf file?? The damn thing just won't fold!

from laughing so hard! Thank you!

I can prove I'm open-minded. I had a new neighbor move in, two houses down the road from me, recently. He looks different than me, which made me uncomfortable as heck for the first 18 years he's been my neighbor, so I'd give him the finger when he drove by and waved. But about a year ago, by mistake, I waved back, and nothing bad happened. So I wave to him until he's out of sight now, then give him the finger. I'm proud of that.

I don't like people who are different. It's not a case of like or dislike. It just creates anxiety for me. If they are too different than me, rage saturates my being, and I immediately go to worst case scenario: what if there are all types of human beings? Did God make a mistake, or what?

That you can be certain about.

Birth, death and change😀😀

I was going to say that, exactly, first but the other thing came up and I went with it!

Grumpy old men.

Women😀

A few years back, I was taking my dog for a walk through the woods, darned near my lawn. I found a large young man cutting trees on my property. This is true. I said, "Excuse me. Let me introduce myself. I'm the land-owner. You are cutting trees on my land, without asking me." He looked at me and said, "Well, it doesn't hurt anything. All trees die, eventually." I was struck by the shallow logic of his thinking. "Yes, and I'll die some day, too," I said. "But I hope it's not today, by way of chainsaw."

We worked out a deal where he could take half the wood from the trees he already cut, and leave half forme. He probably thought, "What a cranky old man."

crying. I just found some old papers copied on a mimeograph (from my teaching days). We should bring those back. Get all the kids high.

We weren’t worried about possible brain damage because we were tough in those days. Also, pretty dumb.

from my 4th grade sweet heart. We were talking about a guy from our school days who just pleaded guilty to murdering his wife -- which while not surprising, was weird.

She was telling me about how the guy had picked on an elderly science teacher in junior high school. I told her how a classmate who discover she kept a quart of whiskey in her little office behind the classroom. That made her our favorite teacher. When she would be unconscious some afternoons during class, we'd venture back for a few hits off the bottle. Kids these days wouldn't have a clue.

What’s all this taking doors off old refrigerators stuff?

We had "jarts." One afternoon, while skipping school and playing jarts, my friend Harold threw one, and it got caught on the electric lines crossing our property. I thought my father would put two and two together. But he just looked at it and said, "Bad throw."

is the best kind of humor. But it has to be funny AND intelligent. This is. Love it!

I was skimming through DU this morning, and it wrote itself.

‘Jimi, Janis and Jim.’ Sigh.

One of the greatest features of getting up-there-in-age is not giving a shit about what other people think of you.

I spent way too many years (50-60?) worrying about appearances or pleasing some some obviously lower life-form. It took some time but became very liberating to ignore them, or to give them some crufty comments back.

It is also a good time in life to be reflective and to be kind to others of all places in life. I no longer have to do anything other than try to be a good human with native ethics (vs religious morals). Of course I don't have any interaction with the MAGAT types.

be the one to write that it is ageist, and viciously attack the author. Kind of like a mean old dog attacking his own tale.

that those kids are playing aren't the same ones that my friends and I played when we were young. What is the world coming to?

a day, I open a window and yell that, no matter if there are any kids out there or not. An ounce of prevention. Actually, I think two ounces is legal in this state, so I can do it twice a day.

Now I don't give a shit who sees me naked, wrinkles & all!

It is a strange thing, though, to look in the mirror when I get out of the shower.

You get it from your kids.

The Buddha says: "Life is entirely change, until the store accepts nothing but credit cards"

42

Thank god for grandchildren.

Why yes... yes I did.

always wondered is how you can play it backwards and tell it's actually backwards. Sounds the same in both directions to me, that's one messed up piece

Put the LP on the turntable, put the needle on the record, leave the turntable "off", turn the amplifier "on", and use your finger to spin the platter in the reverse direction...

After a hit or two of Lebanese Blonde Hash, of course.

of "I'm So Tired," played backwards, comes out, "Paul's a dead man. Miss him, miss him, miss him."

It was indeed the greatest hoax. Other students at college would knock on my friend Ted's & my door, and ask, "Are you the Beatle guys?" For a donation of alcohol, weed, and/or LSD, we would assure them that Paul was indeed dead. We'd play those things, and make shit up off the tops of our heads. We hung the photo of John up over a speaker with a candle burning on it, vibrating as the music played. It made the perfect atmosphere for spooking our friends, and doing drugs for free.

That sounds awesome!

We had a college re-union a few weeks back. Not as many of us above soil these days. Ted and I got a laugh about some of the old "Paul is dead" nights. The contributions of drugs by those who stopped in reduced the number of times we had to enter the redneck dorms to steal their albums and sell them at the used record store. Those 3rd floor fire escape ladders were dangerous when tripping, trust me!

There was one night when there was a knock on the door when a bunch of us were partying. Too high to go to the door, we yelled, "Come in!" It was the police. One of the two said, "Smells good in here. Maybe I should have you fill my pipe." Luckily, I didn't have the large bag of weed in my hand. Then they asked me if I had stolen the sign from in front of the jail? I assured them I had not. Since they didn't ask me if Larry, sitting to my left, had stolen it, I didn't volunteer anything more than my denial.

A few weeks later, I left a bar after doing a massive quantity of LSD. It was late, and I had to cross a four lane highway. There were all types of lights, including those on cars going each way, and I could not tell for sure if they were miles away or if they posed a severe danger to me. So I'd go out one lane, then run back to the sidewalk. Finally, those same two cops pulled up and said, "Get in, Pat, and we'll give you a ride home." I got in, then when I tried to say "thanks," I realized I could not speak. I sat there trying to figure out how to ask them for a pen & paper if they asked me anything?

Kids these days have no idea what it is like to ride in a cop car without the ability to speak.

was in V.N. 67-70 ' . went to Woodstock on a leave for 30 day's & had a absolute blast & the best memory of my life . music, rain , mud . ya could get all jack up & nobody would mess with ya ! just laugh, an have a gay ol'time ! needed a shower , just strip & people would hose ya off ,male or female , rules didn't apply , just respect for other people ! Met whole bunch of life long friends there ! not like today with all hate going around . time to get the garbage out of politics! goes from congress to S.C. !

We thought they’d never end…

Outstanding read, H2O Man!

Change for its own sake? Hmm, maybe not. What ever happened to "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

Instead, we get politicians who leave broken stuff broken. Grumble, grumble.

-- Mal

I really don't like the "new" DU, and was trying to think of something to say on a couple of the threads I had read. Then I read the post on cursive writing, and then one of my daughters called. Recognizing that no person cares if I like the changes here or not, I instead wrote a fraction of the things I have complained about to my kids and their friends. I sent a text to my daughter, and told her to read this -- which she did. She called the OP my "recycled Dad jokes."

See? Change for its own sake. I'm sure the new version of Dad is not up to the old one.

-- Mal

Now that I can make it do basic functions, re posting, I'm fine with it. I've dealt with other websites that changed their format and I got used to it. I'll get used to this, too.

it brings back memories of when an associate suggested that I join DU back in 2003. (Or was it 1982? Might have been 1975, I can't remember.) I had to have my oldest son assist me in signing up, and showing me how the heck it worked. So I'll have him answer my questions this weekend when I see him.

This will come in handy when I want to claim elder abuse.

moderated a political forum in the mid-1980s, and I had no problem with that, or with using a wide variety of online platforms and services and forums. I had no trouble a couple of decades ago teaching myself enough code to set up a website and run a vBulletin forum with it.

I have nothing against change per se.

I am unhappy with change that is a net loss for me because it creates more problems than it solves.

And so far that's my own personal experience with DU4.

I'm willing to put up with a lot of inconveniences personally, though, if DU4 is a positive change overall for the community. I've been reading all the comments I could find, trying to gauge the response so far (admin habit). So far I'm not sure the pluses for some people are outweighing the minuses for others.

And whether they see DU4 as an improvement or not, ALL their responses should count.

People who preferred DU3 should NOT be ridiculed as oldtimers afraid of change.

That stereotype is BS here. This is a community of progressives, and we all believe in moving forward. Some of us have a lot more life experience than others, but that does NOT mean our brains switch off when we confront something new.

It means we're better at evaluating it.

And btw, if anyone thinks they're isn't any good new music out there, I suggest you check out my posts about the young British band Silveroller in Music Appreciation and the Lounge.

I don't like DU4. But I'll either get used to it, or not continue here. Neither option is of any rreal significance.

As I stated above (somewhere), the OP is 100% things that I have complained about to my children and their friends over the years. Each one of them would swear to it in court. Especially my kids, who learned the cursive arts from me growing up. Thus, the pnly person that I "ridiculed" was myself, though if others here can relate, I'm okay with that.

older DUers - most DUers - were being ridiculed if they weren't thrilled with DU4 that anything that seemed to feed it into that attitude and got responses like some in this thread bothered me.

speak for myself. I like "DU," and think it has value. I've "met" people that I'm friends with in real life, as a result. I've had & have the opportunity to converse with good thinkers, including many who have different opinions than myself. And it can be a good place for getting quick updates on breaking news. So I appreciate the thinking part of it.

I've learned to avoid the emotional parts of DU, at least to an extent. I can't get worked up about this change to DU4, even though I don't like it. It's just a discussion forum. It isn't like it's a political action committee -- though it could be, if that was a goal. But it is a political inaction community, allowing people to just talk off the ciff, blow off steam, and hopefully support others experiencing difficult times. And those are important things.

When I first joined, I had just had lots of back surgery. I'd have a bit over two years of PT to get walking okay again, so it gave me something to do. And it provided, as I said, the opportunity to make friends and discuss ideas. Life has taught me to appreciate the Power of Ideas, and so I like that part of DU. But I recognize that it is an internet forum, generally one of my favorites, but not a central factor in who I am, or how I live (at least since I learned to walk again!). I accept that, like in all of life, there are going to be those that say things that I consider foolish and/or ignorant on DU. But that has zero impact on me. It's just part of the human experience in groupsettings.

I will admit that I like both sick and dark humor. They help me cope in real life, and there are times when reading DU provides for this.

are convinced that is me! So if it is you, we have proof that John was right in the first line of "I am the Walrus," and we didn't even have to play it backwards!

Your Depends! Something to look forward to!

Last Thanksgiving, all my kids were here. I was complaining about getting old, and said that if I get senile, I want them to put a pillow over my head. One son said, "Uh, we're not waiting. Go lay down on the couch."

But I'm laughing!

Do not go gentle into that good night.

When this same son was first in college, he asked me if he could have my artifact collection when I die? I said sure, happy that he was interested in carrying it on ....... until he responded, "Could you hurry up? It would look great in my dorm."

Maybe a minute spent trashing all the threads complaining about how people loathe all the changes, then I can get down to stuff that’s important.

It's kind of like the utter destruction of the environment. We are a failed species ...... which raises the question: is the last one standing really the winner?

…being collectively beat up for being (horrors) Boomers by younger people who are not personally glueing their hands to asphalt or splashing red paint on priceless works of art — but think we should be doing so to prove our commitment to stopping climate change.

As soon as Hamas attacked Israel they took a temporary hike. But I do think your attitude has a great deal of merit. I’m glad to see you tonight.

I did try to join in that conversation, pointing out that they purpose of protest actions is not to insult those on your side, or the undecided. I noted examples such as those led by Martin Luther King, where one accepts the price of breaking the law, as well as Abbie Hoffman's throwing money at the NY Stock Exchange.

One poor fellow was upset by the mere mention of Abbie Hoffmman. This reminded me that DU is a diverse community.

As I said to my daughter this evening, I have to espouse non-violence -- I'm too old & deeble to have any other choice!

I appreciate that! And the feeling is mutual!

But I like it. I’ve enjoyed the ride from Woodstock to trying to figure out DU4. Now, back to my turn table and The White Album

Re-reading the things I said in the OP, I was reminded of getting high with him. And dying laughing at his non-stop jokes. Some were serious at their core, and this whole OP/thread reminds me of his warning that laughing gas is no laughing matter.

those spoiled little brats expected to have their own bath water? Both of them? And they're in their mid-thirties! You'd think they would have learned to share by now.

You've obviously spoiled them. Kids wasting water, then blaming the older generation for leaving them a world on fire.

Very well said. Thank you.

I wish I could seriously say that was my central message in the OP, but of course it isn't.

In recent weeks, I've been thinking about two things other people have said. Later in life, ex-Beatle George said that sometimes when he left his garden he felt like he was on the wrong planet. I can relate to that.

The other is something my late friend Rubin Carter told me: "We are all born into the exact circumstances we must overcome in life."

(Also, in human evolution, there were times that consuminf fat had benefits. Today, of course, while there are some fats that are okay to ingest in small amounts, there are many others that are unhealthy. The American diet tends to be unhealthy. )

Never seen it. But they were friends with George. (I have a cousin who is a big fan.)

The most astounding thing I have been taught by living as long as I have is that we spend most of our lives old. If we are lucky.
So I tell all my youthful friends, never take your self seriously, you are will be older every day.

Probably some kind of record for me.

I muddled through and found all the settings that make DU4 tolerable for me.

But I'll never give up my flip phone. My cell phone is Star Trek universe perfection. It's very likely I'll never do DU on a phone or tablet so these upgrades will be forever unappreciated.