You know you are getting old when:

When you remember this "good old friend".

Oh, the 90s!

 

Remember these? I still have two or three of them in my first aid kit which I took home from hospital when we went over to the electronic digital versions.

Now, how many still remember the wrist flick needed when using them..!

 

Still have and use mine, and I'm still running a few degrees cold. I might not be the healthiest specimen on the lot, but my cooling system is very efficient.

 

I’ve tried about ten responses to the glass thermometer topic. None of them work. Sorry.

 

And what happened when the force of the flick exceeded the strength of the grasp! How does mercury make itself into those shiny little beads, anyway?

 

High surface tension... The surface tension tries to pull the bead into a sphere, the high density tends to flatten the bead... Hence that sort-of rounded button shape.
The high surface tension also makes the bead surface VERY smooth so it acts as a shiny mirror/reflector.

 

Got it, thank you! I actually knew most of that (but hadn't thought about the density causing the flattening), but as usual my dry sense of humor didn't come across well in writing. But I keep trying anyway. I was just thinking while reading a different thread - it is absolutely amazing what a wide variety of things I learn here on the Lounge!

 

Answering questions is a reflex action by now after teaching for 25+ years. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to do that...
I agree with your statement: "...it is absolutely amazing what a wide variety of things I learn here on the Lounge!" That's a very big reason I keep coming back...

(By coincidence, modeling of the fluid-mechanics of molten metals was a key part of my Ph.D. research.)

 

Being one of the old guys in my profession now, I've spent quite a bit of time teaching and precepting new firefighters and paramedics. I certainly do understand the teaching reflex; it becomes ingrained, especially when you feel it's important for your folks to understand the "why" of everything you do. And I really do appreciate the detailed answer and the opportunity to learn. My respect to you for being an educator for that long!

 

And, all this time, I’ve been told that men don’t live as long as women because of the choices men make: we don’t go to the doctor as much, we drink too much, we engage in risky behavior. Basically, men are idiots.

So imagine my surprise to learn that this life-long understanding is incorrect and that across species, males die off younger and it has nothing to do with “bad choices”.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/secret-long-life-matching-sex-chromosomes

I’ll drink to that!

 

Hardly conclusive & rather speculative, better stick to clean living for the time being.

 

You have to count the number of pills left to see if you took one a few hours ago...
Bonus points if you're wearing a bathrobe.

 

Was watching "My Brilliant Friend" on HBO, which is an Italian drama made in Italy, and is in all Italian. It's set in the 1960s, and I noticed a chair next to the phone in a hotel room. It struck me that most people younger than me probably would not understand the connection between the two.

 

When I reach my 39. birthday in four years, I will become 39a, 39b, 39c, ..., from that on!

 

You wake up, like I did this morning, and find that you won an eBay auction for a hat you don't really remember bidding on.
This one, for instance:

 

... the sobering thought crosses your mind that you’d be among the first to be triaged to death should the hospitals get overrun.

 

When you got your (three glasses of) Bismarck herrings this time as usual in supermarket, because of normal stock.

It's just such a 35+ thing.