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Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

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Trackman

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Both items are clearly labelled s vhs.
So it is, apologies was thinking of something else.
Were Betamax videos tallerthan VHS casettes? If so,they would be little room or not all to manouvere in a VHS case.
 

najaB

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So it is, apologies was thinking of something else.
Were Betamax videos tallerthan VHS casettes? If so,they would be little room or not all to manouvere in a VHS case.
More to the point, they used completely incompatible methods for recording the signal onto the tape. Think of it as the difference between English (left to right, top to bottom) and traditional Japanese (top to bottom, right to left). There's no way a simple adaptor could change that.
 

GordonT

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The "table manners" which adults often insisted that children observed in the days when eating most meals together at the dining table was the norm in many households. These usually included an embargo on resting elbows on the table and a mandatory requirement to say "please may I leave the table?" if a child wished to do so. Adults would sometimes use the granting of permission to leave the table as a bargaining chip contingent upon the child eating up what was still on his/her plate.
 

BingMan

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Rotary events where grace is still said before the meal. In my youth that was normal at seated meal times when staying with my aunt and uncle. Not at picnics though.
Our grace is

Good wine: good meat: good God: let's eat
 

GordonT

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Holding Doors open for women.
Older ladies still expect/appreciate it and ditto for stepping back to let them proceed first. Occasionally younger ladies can seem slightly resentful of the preferential treatment arising from their sex.
 

azt

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Holding Doors open for women.
I don't do this anymore since I was told by a woman that I had held the door open for "that I'm perfectly capable of opening the door myself".

What did I do wrong?

:(

I don't do this anymore since I was told by a woman that I had held the door open for "that I'm perfectly capable of opening the door myself".

What did I do wrong?

:(
Only do it for blokes now. They don't seem to mind!
 

najaB

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I don't do this anymore since I was told by a woman that I had held the door open for "that I'm perfectly capable of opening the door myself".
I hold doors for anyone if they're close enough, regardless of age or gender.
 

D6130

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I don't do this anymore since I was told by a woman that I had held the door open for "that I'm perfectly capable of opening the door myself".

What did I do wrong?

:(


Only do it for blokes now. They don't seem to mind!
As far as I'm concerned it's just a common courtesy towards a fellow human being.... regardless of their gender. However I've been berated too many times by women to make it worthwhile on a regular basis.
 

Peter Mugridge

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I would add to this thread:

People who do their jobs properly.

( I appreciate that there are still a lot of people who do, but unfortunately there is such a high and increasing number who don't... and the rest of us have to spend half our lives sorting out the almighty messes those people make... )
 

Ediswan

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There are two forms of 'holding a door open'.

Holding it open so it does not close in front of the person following. They then hold the door themselves as they pass through. This can be an ongoing process.

Holding it open so that the person following can pass through without touching the door thmselves.

Anybody who takes offence at the former is easily offended.
 

MotCO

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I don't do this anymore since I was told by a woman that I had held the door open for "that I'm perfectly capable of opening the door myself".
I don't do it because she's a lady; I do it because I'm a gentleman.
 

najaB

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Perhaps that may be the case with certain Christian sections, but Friday Prayers seem still to attract many worshippers every week at the mosques in my locality.
It's also true in Muslim communities, they just have a higher starting point and an increasing overall population.
 

AM9

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Here you go, needs batteries apparently.
(Description a VHS video cassette with slot on the top to fit a Betamax tape, lid is open )
View attachment 167006
That is a VHS C adaptor. Early camcorders had a mini version of a VHS mechanism that could taKe tapes with 30 or 45 minutes worth of tape. The adaptor enabled the tape to load into a full size mechanism by pulling the tape loop out so that it could be threaded around the full sized drum for playback of camera footage.
The Beta system was totally different in that:
the tape feed to the drum followed a large 'U' path​
the drum was larger so the angle across the drum surface was more shallow​
the linear speed was slower​
the chroma and luminance carrier frequencies were different​
so not much chance of interchangeability there by any practical means.
 

GordonT

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The former expectation that an adult would only be addressed by his/her first name where encouraged to do so by the person concerned. Especially true if the adult was elderly or professional or generally 'old school'. Such a person would almost certainly recoil from today's informality where a car salesman for example might presume to be on first name terms with a prospective customer within ten minutes of their acquaintance.
 

jfollows

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The former expectation that an adult would only be addressed by his/her first name where encouraged to do so by the person concerned. Especially true if the adult was elderly or professional or generally 'old school'. Such a person would almost certainly recoil from today's informality where a car salesman for example might presume to be on first name terms with a prospective customer within ten minutes of their acquaintance.
Maybe, but I keep telling my dentist and its staff to call me by my first name and they keep forgetting and reverting to “Mr. X”, it’s frustrating!
After several years and several thousand pounds I’d really prefer the informality ……
 

GordonT

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Maybe, but I keep telling my dentist and its staff to call me by my first name and they keep forgetting and reverting to “Mr. X”, it’s frustrating!
After several years and several thousand pounds I’d really prefer the informality ……
Yes the clinging to past formality does still exist to a degree.
 

Killingworth

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The former expectation that an adult would only be addressed by his/her first name where encouraged to do so by the person concerned. Especially true if the adult was elderly or professional or generally 'old school'. Such a person would almost certainly recoil from today's informality where a car salesman for example might presume to be on first name terms with a prospective customer within ten minutes of their acquaintance.
My mother was christened with the 2 forenames of aunts she didn't like and hated them both. Shortened forms certainly didn't go down well either. Nor was she keen on her surname. She may have been joking when she said she'd only married my dad to get rid of that.

In later life hospital staff and carers thought they would be making her relax by using one of her forenames or some sort of abbreviated form. Total recoil, it had the opposite effect. She wasn't being stuffy but much preferred Mrs M....
 

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