From: worblit@gmail.com   
      
   On Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 7:12:34 AM UTC-8, islander wrote:   
   > On 3/2/2019 5:06 AM, jan...@gmail.com wrote:    
   > >    
   > > Rumpel,    
   > > There no longer seems to be any    
   > > "conversation," and certainly    
   > > very few retirement subjects.    
   > >    
   > > I found another retirement    
   > > board called " soc.senior.issues    
   > > but that seems to be defunct,    
   > > although there are a few posts    
   > > from Jim Higgins, as late as    
   > > last December. There are some    
   > > old posts from people like    
   > > Olly Mensch, on topics such as    
   > > "Mercurochrome."    
   > >   
   > The demise of soc.retirement has been predicted for years, yet it continues.    
   >    
   > The more serious question might be what has happened to civil    
   > discussion? The country has become increasingly divided along political    
   > lines and that seems to be resulting in an end of discussion, civil or    
   > otherwise.    
   >    
   > Politics has always been in the discussion here, worse in election    
   > years. Retirement issues come up when participants want to discuss    
   > retirement issues, but otherwise the discussion drifts in whatever    
   > direction us old timers feel inclined. Sticking to the topic is often a    
   > victim of the way things drift.    
   >    
   > Generally, it is just a bunch of old farts sitting around the virtual    
   > cracker barrel talking about whatever they want. Personally, I keep    
   > getting drawn back to it because I have been discussing/arguing with a    
   > few regulars for nearly 20 years.    
   >    
   > If you are looking for an alternative, I have been using Quora for a    
   > couple of years now. It is a much larger forum and uses a more modern    
   > format including the ability to incorporate graphics which allows me to    
   > include some of the charts from my work on comparative state politics.    
   > It is moderated, so a lot of the ugly side of the Internet is eliminated.    
   >    
   > I hope that you will continue to participate in soc.retirement. With    
   > Emily becoming much less involved, you are the only woman in this group.    
   >    
   > Your mention of Olly reminds me that she is probably gone. Last I    
   > recall, she was in an assisted living facility and not liking it at all.    
   > Jim Higgins drops in occasionally, so I guess he is still alive. One    
   > of the difficulties with soc.retirement is that people just disappear    
   > and we often don't know if they have died.   
      
      Hi Islander!   This is Rumpelstiltsin, just to let you know I haven't died,   
   though I'm 77 now so it probably won't be long, though I still feel fine.  It   
   was always a pleasure to read your posts, and I've toyed with the idea of   
   rejoining soc.   
   retirement since my disk crashed and I had to get a different computer, but I   
   probably won't rejoin because that would necessitate rejoining (and repaying   
   for)  a newsserver, then downloading the many new posts that come every day.    
   I don't think I'm up    
   for that.  I also miss Rita, who died long ago now of course, but I always   
   regarded her as the heart of the group while she was alive.   Peace and love   
   from this former self-identified "hippie", though I never really did fit that   
   mould.  Since I'm not    
   subscribed to soc.retirement any more, I probably won't read (or find) any   
   replies to this post, but all the best to you and the other posters, even El   
   Castor if he's still there!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)