Service of It Never Gets Old
Thursday, August 17th, 2023
A young receptionist at the eye doctor’s office this week and I had a good laugh. I commented that the doctor had downgraded the pens with the medical group logo that patients are urged to take. She said he didn’t like the other ones because they “looked old-fashioned.” [Photo below.] I wondered, in a whisper, if he’d observed the average ages of his patients! I thought the faux blue glass of the original ones looked elegant and unusual for a giveaway. The all-plastic, while sleek, looked and felt ordinary.
I’m probably the wrong person to write this post because even in my 20s I loved antiques. The thought that someone over 300 years ago had placed his elbow on my 17th century tavern gateleg table was thrilling. Still is.
I am surprised at how popular vinyl records have become [while I count on YouTube and WMNR through my laptop for music]. Ben Sisario reported October 2021 in a New York Times article updated in June of this year that in the first half of the year there were $467 million sales in the U.S. –17 million records. In this period, according to the Recording Industry Association, wrote Sisario, revenue from CDs was $205 million. Nevertheless, streaming accounts for 84 percent of revenue.
Snoopy has been around since 1950 when Charles Schulz introduced us to him. He’s always been a favorite of mine and millions of others. Mr. Schulz has been gone for 23 years yet his Instagram handle, @snoopynoofficial, has 35,200 followers and generates 2,600 likes per post. In my apartment the Peanuts gang is on a monthly wall calendar as well as on a daily calendar. The characters never get old.
Three years ago, Audrey Hepburn was the subject of a documentary. Joanne Woodward is still with us but no longer acting. Nevertheless, Ethan Hawke directed a documentary about the professional lives of Woodward and her husband Paul Newman last year. And the Lady Gaga/Tony Bennett collaboration was a joy to watch.
The subhead of Margaret Roach’s New York Times article “Why Are People Still Pressing Flowers? It’s a Form of Storytelling” is “For 500 years, we’ve documented the science and beauty of the natural world by pressing plants. It’s a tradition that anyone can join.” The article ran yesterday.
In a society that worships all that’s new, have you noticed new lives for things and people long gone?
