From: noway@nowhere.com   
      
   On 4/22/2022 7:10 AM, islander wrote:   
   > On 4/19/2022 8:18 PM, Geoff Wilson wrote:   
   >> 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!   
   >   
   > OMG!  On the chance that you do read soc.retirement, please send me a   
   > message at Islander.1234@yahoo.com.  That is my throw-away email address   
   > that I use to avoid spam.  I'll respond and we can communicate   
   > privately.  So good to hear that you are still alive!   
      
   Great news!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)