The Grumpy Old Man Podcast

OTC Pain Relievers and Hotdogs

A mix of annoyances in one episode. How effective and safe are Over-The-Counter pain relievers? Do Hotdogs really require some of the ingredients that are in them? How much personal hygiene products are we supposed to waste? Here’s a few links for more info if you want: https://www.goodrx.com/classes/nsaids/nsaid-list [https://www.goodrx.com/classes/nsaids/nsaid-list] https://www.drugs.com/tylenol.html [https://www.drugs.com/tylenol.html] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidocaine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidocaine] I really don’t want to play the Social Media game and get pulled into their timesuck. So, I have no FaceBook, Instagram, X (Twitter), or SnapChat accounts. If you want to holler at me, try good old-fashioned email. I know it’s 1990’s, but I’m not likely gonna read it anyway. harvard@gompod.com [harvard@gompod.com]

Weather

New, shorter intro. Earth is a planet that floats around our solar system. That constant motion causes, what we call, weather. It’s normal and natural. Earth has been having heat, snow, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. for EVER. But if you listen to the media, it’s new and catastrophic. Hype to get you excited, so you watch, and they bombard you with….you guessed it….commercials! El Nino, La Nina….it’s all BS. It is 2024, I’m not suggesting that you go out and buy a weather rock. But some of you must be watching this garbage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_rock [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_rock] I really don’t want to play the Social Media game and get pulled into their timesuck. So, I have no FaceBook, Instagram, X (Twitter), or SnapChat accounts. If you want to holler at me, try good old-fashioned email. I know it’s 1990’s, but I’m not likely gonna read it anyway. harvard@gompod.com [harvard@gompod.com]

They

This is a delicate subject that wasn’t easy, but just had to be addressed. You’ll just have to listen for yourself. I certainly hope I was fair and respectful. I really don’t want to play the Social Media game and get pulled into their timesuck. So, I have no FaceBook, Instagram, X (Twitter), or SnapChat accounts. If you want to holler at me, try good old-fashioned email. I know it’s 1990’s, but I’m not likely gonna read it anyway. harvard@gompod.com [harvard@gompod.com]

Buy it again

The “Good Old Days” are called the “Good Old Days” for a reason! I miss them. I get that there is not enough sheep, wool, cotton in this world for all 8 billion of us. I get that we needed to invent nylon and polyester just so we could make enough clothes for everyone. But that doesn’t make it any better than when we did have enough. Consumer products used to be good quality and lasted. Today, they are junk that break or quickly become obsolete. Funny how they managed to drain as much money from us as they could with an old product just in time for it to become obsolete because a better one just arrived. Think vinyl, 8-track, cassette, laser disc, CD, DVD, now mp3. They did seem to profit on each and every one. I’d bet they could have skipped a few steps but hadn’t milked us enough yet. Not yet convinced. Well, they also did it with TV. Black and white, then color, SD, then HD, then 1080p, then 4k, now what? 8k? What are we up to? iPhone 15? Microsoft thinks your dumb, Windows 11…yeah right, more like 20! Think your EV is the ultimate. Guess again, in 5 years it’ll be obsolete and something else will be better. Today’s consumer products are designed to fail or become obsolete. Most can’t even be repaired when they fail. You are supposed to send them off to recycling or a landfill and buy a new one. We used to worry about the amount of garbage we were creating. Now garbage is our friend, it makes our companies and their shareholders rich. I really don’t want to play the Social Media game and get pulled into their timesuck. So, I have no FaceBook, Instagram, X (Twitter), or SnapChat accounts. If you want to holler at me, try good old-fashioned email. I know it’s 1990’s, but I’m not likely gonna read it anyway. harvard@gompod.com [harvard@gompod.com]

Airlines

Air travel is routinely touted as being the safest way to move from one place to another. Not surprising when you calculate the number of deaths to miles traveled. Each flight covers hundreds or thousands of miles so the denominator is large. But the same is true for rail too. And they no longer even publish travel by ship. Which you can expect to also be low. Simply put, any form of travel other than being on the road in a car, truck, or motorcycle is very safe. Unless you are in a helicopter. The problem, and the focus of this episode, is that travel by air unlike others means is a huge pain in the neck and loaded with inequities. From the cost to the inconvenience to being treated sub-human, it could all be much better than what we accept. If we weren’t always in such a hurry, other means of travel are way better. And if this country was as leading edge as they want you to believe, then we’d have rail service much like Europe and Japan. For more facts on safety…https://www.bts.gov/content/transportation-fatalities-mode Check out Newark Parking rates, you’ll be surpised…https://www.newarkairport.com/to-from-airport/parking I really don’t want to play the Social Media game and get pulled into their timesuck. So, I have no FaceBook, Instagram, X (Twitter), or SnapChat accounts. If you want to holler at me, try good old-fashioned email. I know it’s 1990’s, but I’m not likely gonna read it anyway. harvard@gompod.com [harvard@gompod.com]