Thomas de Groot wrote:
> On 23-2-2016 22:08, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>> I may be delusional, but... When I was a kid, I swear Coka-Cola actually
>> *tasted* of something. And the cheap no-name colas didn't taste anywhere
>> near as good as actual brand-name Coka-Cola. But now even the brand-name
>> stuff has little actual flavour; it's just sweet and tangy. And the
>> no-name stuff tastes more or less indistinguishable from the real-brand
>> stuff.
>>
>> Or, then again, maybe I'm just delusional...
>
> I have not tasted rust-dissolvers for years now but I can confirm that I
> too noted the difference.
>

It's not just colas.

Some years back (don't recall exactly, but probably mid-2003, when my 
husband went on dialysis), I encountered a new product at the local 
grocery store, something called "Smart Chicken."  It was just packaged 
raw chicken, but without antibiotics in their feed and, most 
importantly, without the embalming fluid that had already become 
ubiquitous in chicken and was becoming that way in pork.  Since the 
mysterious "solution" (as in "This product may contain up to 14% of a 
solution," followed by a lot of really small print; supposedly, if your 
chicken's not embalmed, it will come out dry and 
disgusting--seriously???  If your chicken's dry, you're cooking it 
wrong) typically contained a distressing amount of potassium and/or 
phosphorus--both bad ideas for a peritoneal dialysis patient--and, since 
it was on special, I decided to try it.  Once home, I rolled a couple of 
chicken thighs in my Top Secret Chicken Rub*, roasted them for an 
appropriate amount of time, put them on plates with this and that, and 
served them up.  Then I took a bite.

As the Blessed FSM is my witness, tears came to my eyes.  Just for an 
instant, I found myself back in Grandma's kitchen, with summer sunlight 
streaming in the window, a beloved old dog at my feet, and the scent of 
innocence in the air, biting into a piece of fried chicken.

I had forgotten what chicken was supposed to taste like.

In IT, it's called "standards creep."  It's everywhere.  One year, some 
moron with an MBA decides that the quality can be reduced by 10% and no 
one will be able to tell the difference.  Then, next year, some other 
moron with an MBA decides that the quality can be reduced by 10% and no 
one will be able to tell the difference.  Then, next year, some other 
moron with an MBA decides that the quality can be reduced by 10%--well, 
you get my drift.

Back in the day, when dinosaurs walked the earth, you could buy a head 
of celery and it was edible.  Now, a regular head of celery from the 
grocery store is dark green, bitter, and inedible--and may actually be 
labelled "good for soups" or something that basically means "For god's 
sake, don't try eating this raw."  To get the stuff that used to be 
marketed as normal celery, you have to buy a plastic-wrapped package 
containing two heads of something called "celery hearts."  To get the 
stuff that used to be called "celery hearts" fifty years ago**--well, I 
don't know--it might help to be Bill Gates or Oprah.

And don't get me started on toilet paper.  To get what used to be 
marketed as "toilet paper," you have to pay extra for something called a 
"double roll"--basically a normal amount of toilet paper wound tightly 
around the tube.  Like it used to be.

Canned dog food.  It was 1984, appropriately enough, when the standard 
16-ounce can suddenly, without warning, became the 13.2-ounce 
can--possibly not obvious if you're feeding multiple cans to a Great 
Dane, but rather distressing when you realize that your 
Shelty-Chihuahua's quarter-can doesn't look quite right.

Tuna.  Old cookbooks are full of recipes involving 6-ounce cans of tuna, 
which are now 5-ounce cans--which need contain only 3.5 ounces of tuna...

AAAAARRRRRGGGHHH...

Heavy sigh.  Deep breath.  Rant winding down.  Feel slightly better now.

Of course, the world still sucks.

--Sherry Shaw

* Black pepper, garlic powder, cumin, and paprika.  And, of course, love.

** Yes, I said fifty years ago.  I was twelve.

-- 
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