It's surprising how many items are disappearing.
For instance, ties. As I look out from the choir at First Baptist Church on Sunday morning, I can count the ties on fellow parishioners on one hand and have three fingers left over. (Last Sunday there were two ties.) Heck, a decade or so back, ties were as thick as mosquitoes at Moro Bay.
Why are they gone? For the same reason all things end: Ties are absolutely worthless! They are a relic from the past when we needed neckwear to keep our necks warm, and today they serve no purpose.
How many ties do you see on the men who are the wave of the future? Executives of virtually all tech companies stopped wearing ties a couple of decades ago. When you see the president of Walmart and the former president of the United States at either a business meeting or sitting for official portraits without a tie, you know the end is near for those neck chokers. I have already designated my home and office a tie-free zone.
You probably won't care if this bunch is gone: video stores, eight-track and cassette tapes, and hard-wired telephone lines. Gone are hard-wired speakers and amplifiers. You can confidently toss those chunky speakers, wires and all, and replace them with a speaker no bigger than a soup can and have better quality sound.
Do you like the feel in your hands of your daily newspaper as you sit on your couch sipping coffee? Well, get ready to see, if you already haven't, that paper disappear, replaced by a tree-saving iPad that gives you a much improved paper. And a knock on the door means a Starbucks drone has replaced your coffee maker.
What about the way we dress? The ladies have ditched nylon hose, girdles, and elaborate bouffant hairstyles. Have we noticed the difference? Not really, because the end of most things are gradual.
Take socks. Women have mostly dropped them, and guys are beginning to do so too. Socks had a purpose when we started wearing them several centuries ago. Shoes then were so roughly made that you needed socks to protect your feet. Not any more. You can buy shoes now that fit great and are as soft as a glove. Besides, during the summer, socks just give us hot feet. Adios socks!
What about men wearing undershirts in 95-degree heat? Do you need that extra layer of clothing to keep from getting chilled? Stop dressing like it's the 1950s.
With clothing, less is where it's headed. Consider hats. In the '40s almost every man wore a hat. If you live in El Dorado, you know John Trimble, who recently died, was one of the last hat-wearing men in south Arkansas. As the region becomes more tropical each year, all heavy clothing will be shucked and skimpy clothes will be the fashion items, and not just on the beach.
Get ready for clothing that is very close to swimwear in churches, restaurants, grocery stores, and other indoor-outdoor venues. Ear muffs, wool scarves, and top coats are going out the door in a hurry.
That brings us to a more serious note. We are seeing the end of Miami, New Orleans, Houston, and other low-lying coastal cities as climate change melts the ice caps. As the earth continues to heat, we've seen the end to seasonal climate changes as southern coastal areas become sub-tropical and 500-year rains, super hurricanes, and blistering heat waves replace seasonal climate changes.
Other changes are on the way. According to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Donald Trump will spell the end to our country ever electing a man as president again. And forget privacy. We may not be anxious to have our lives displayed on YouTube, but the absence of privacy is heading toward us like a speeding train.
When we see Republican women stop wearing fur coats, we have seen the end for furs. Most ladies stopped wearing them a decade ago. And sadly, we're seeing the end of the circus. The Internet, streaming video, and other entertainment venues are free, and you don't have to leave you living room.
Big grocery stores that try to carry tons of low-quality stuff are being whipped by specialty grocers. Fresh and organic groceries are pushing the big-everything grocers out.
Uber and Lyft seem to be spelling the end of taxis, and LED light bulbs signal the end of regular bulbs. Let's just hope the Chinese make them a little cheaper.
Everyone knows tobacco is on its way out. An Asian country has already banned tobacco by 2020, and cigarettes cost $13 a pack in New York City--wow! An extra $5,000 to $10,000 a year, just to get lung cancer. And when the percentage of smokers in California approaches a low of 10 percent, the end of smoking is in sight. Good riddance.
Since our Congress declared open season on wolves, they will be extinct in less than a decade. According to a recent study, over a million species will soon disappear because of human activity. Here in Arkansas we have seen an end to quail as ground scavengers (don't believe that hogwash about habitat) gobble up the quail eggs.
As the world's population continues to increase, and as climate change reduces arable land, we will be approaching an end to a world that humans cannot feed its population.
Stephen Hawking, who was possibly the smartest person in the world, said, "In 100 years we will have over-populated and fouled the earth so badly it will be the end of earth, and we'll need to find a new planet to inhabit."
I guess that's the end of all ends, but maybe we've still got time to put your honey in a fur coat, light up a cigarette, and play a Simon and Garfunkel cassette tape as you boogie one more time.
Email Richard Mason at richard@gibraltarenergy.com.
Editorial on 10/20/2019