… to somebody named Ashlee, probably anybody over 30 seems elderly.
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Arlo is surprisingly surprised by this accusation for a step-grandparent. Hmm…does A&J work on a sliding scale, or did they still get together in the 70s, meaning they’d be in their late 50s at the youngest?
It grieves me to admit I am 64, but every day I work outside in the Iowa heat and humidity until the sweat drips from the brim of my ball cap. From the front edge of the brim! Does this mean I am/am not an elderly neighbor?
“does A&J work on a sliding scale”
They age at about a rate of 2:1… 2 real years age them 1 year. Their son recently finished college and got married. They could be somewhere between mid 40’s and late 50’s. My daughter recently finished college and got married last week, so I think I have a good idea of how old A&J are, and “elderly” isn’t accurate, ya darn whippersnappers. Git off my…
“to somebody named Ashlee, probably anybody over 30 seems elderly.”
Janis’ namesake didn’t even make it to 30.
James — good, and sad, point: Jim, Janis and Jimmi were the founding members of Club 27. Not the EARLIEST members — people have since added pre-1970 members as far back as blues and jazz musicians in 1938 and earlier — so long as you died at 27 from tragic causes exacerbated by drug/alcohol abuse and mental illness exacerbated by your rock-and-roll lifestyle (which includes jazz and blues, because, well, music, alcohol, heroin, STDs, and mental illness weren’t invented in the 60s), you, too can join! So, even though the club was founded in 1970, the EARLIEST member is Alexandre Levy, who died in 1892. Okay, I think his inclusion is dubious, because we don’t KNOW that he abused alcohol and drugs or committed suicide or died in a fight or something like that — but given that his cause of death isn’t known, except that he didn’t have any known illnesses, died and 27, and wasn’t reported to be of an accident or a medical mystery… I’m willing to consider it.
Ha, ha, even thinking of “Ashlee” as a youngster name is a geezer thing. The name “Ashee” started in the early 1970’s, and peaked in 1987. So those born at the peak of Ashee popularity are already over 30, and an appreciable number are in their late 40’s.
I love Arlo’s reaction! I’ve had that reaction myself in similar situations, like the first time a kid old enough to drive called me “ma’am”, when I was only 25! Sure, he was probably just a polite Catholic-school kid, but that truly hurt my feelings. Thankfully, nobody has ever yet asked if I want the “senior discount”, even though I’m now 55 and would qualify most places. I’ve never actually asked for it, either – I’m just fine paying full price, thank you! YMMV, of course.
I read the other day that some young pop star was hospitalized after a drug overdose, and my first thought was “She’s damn lucky she’s only 25.”
I was three years past my 65th birthday before I suddenly realized that as of that date I had qualified for a price-reduced senior municipal bus system card. I’d been riding the bus fairly regularly since I moved here in 1971, and for all those decades I’d known that the lower price option was available for riders 65 and over, but it literally took me three years to put the two factoids together in my head. “Wait, that would include ME .. . but how can that be, since I can’t possibly be that old, even though I’m that old?” sort of thing.
Arlo and Janis are still whippernsappers to me, but they’re nice folks so I won’t yell at them to get off my lawn.
@ WW – The SSA’s “baby name” search engine confirms 1987 as the peak year, but also revealed that “Ashlee” never made it into the top 100 names (for girls in the USA).
P.S. Just for comparison, Janis topped out at 108th place in 1947 (but dropped out of the top-1000 after 1979). Arlo never even made it past 667th place in the 1st half of the 20th century, and disappeared entirely during the 2nd half, only to stage a resurgence after 2011, making it all the way to 316th place in 2917.
I would imagine Ashley had always ranked higher than Ashlee.
“Thankfully, nobody has ever yet asked if I want the “senior discount”, even though I’m now 55 and would qualify most places. I’ve never actually asked for it, either – I’m just fine paying full price, thank you! YMMV, of course.”
Sigh…. I play board games with a group of millenials. I’m older but… cool and aware older. So one day two years ago we went to Denny’s at midnight and one of the twerps said (possibly joking; it’s really hard to tell with this particular one) that I could get the senior discount and I bristled that that was ridiculous. That’s for over 55 and i won’t be 55 for….. four months…. That *really* hurt.
@woozy, it definitely hurts even when it’s true! A few years ago, a subcontractor I was working with for just one day insisted he could guess my age – and then guessed it exactly (despite the fact we hadn’t spoken about anything that would give my age away) – and I briefly considered knocking the smug look clean off his damned face. :)
Starting a few months before I turned 60 and qualified for senior discount at my local swimming pool, the bods behind the counter tried to give the discount to me and I demurred, insisting on the higher price. However, since I turned 60 in January as often as not the on-duty bod would try and charge me full whack! Maybe once I actually turned 60 I relaxed and looked younger.
The only Ashley I know personally (son of a contemporary of mine) just turned 30.
“I would imagine Ashley had always ranked higher than Ashlee.”
Alas for poor Ashleigh.
The goggle eyes of horror in the final panel make this one entertaining.
Robert’s hair started going salt and pepper in his 20s, so he has looked older than he is for some time. On the other hand, I was 40 and sometimes still being proofed at movies. (Though apparently the bed bugs did me in – just before same, in a casual conversation a friend was surprised to hear how long we were married and figured I was 15 years younger than I was, after the bed bugs I started getting the senior offers.)
I already have the paperwork for the discount for the NYC subway (and LIRR and buses, which I don’t ride) waiting to be filed in and sent in. Best of all when I turn 65 my medical insurance premiums drop almost $500 a month.
Robert turned 65 last year. If I had thought ahead I would have done the paperwork the year before, so our senior tax exemption is not starting until the new school taxes next month – but paying half the real estate taxes will be very nice also. And we just received the renewal papers for it for next year.
Wendys offers a senior senior discount at 50 – we found out as they were offering it to Robert and he would explain he was younger than he looked and they told him, “no, no it starts at 50” So lunch for the 2 of us is $3 a day at Wendys – small burger plain for me, 2 for him and choice of 100 flavors of soda for free for each of us. One can also get coffee, ice tea or tea free. We are nice – we only have the soda. We have seen people come in and get the soda and the coffee both free – each in the couple. We go so often, okay 6 days a week, that when Robert goes in without me because I am working or at my embroidery chapter meeting, he has to stop them from ringing up my part of the order. :-)
When living on a tight budget, senior discounts help a great deal.
And neither of our “nice young couples with a little girl” next door neighbors, would check up on us.
Synchronicity… Today I heard from an Ashli.
I was waiting anxiously for my 50th birthday, because then I qualified to join my local senior center which has great classes and events. Joined on my birthday, started a ceramics course a month later. I’m enjoying myself tremendously.
I always thought it was seriously unfair when I was too old for the junior/student/etc discounts and too young for the senior ones – I’m still too young (51), but at least I can go to Mastick (the senior center).
@ Bill – “Ashley” is not just “more” popular, it was in the top-10 continuously from 1983 to 2004, hitting #1 in 1991 & 1992. However, even before it started to become a popular girl’s name (entering the top-1000 in 1964), it was in use as a boy’s name since (at least) 1901, peaking at #282 in 1980.
One of the reporters on the lo-cal TV news is named Ashli Lincoln.
Because Ashley isn’t conspicuously trendy enough, they have to fool with the spelling.
“Because Ashley isn’t conspicuously trendy enough, they have to fool with the spelling.”
Take it up with Madysen.
It’s weird that we didn’t even have the “Reply” feature in the July, but some of the comments from July, such as Bill’s, have been retroactively marked as replies, and nested. How the heck did that happen?
Ah, nesting. I switched on very limited nesting to see whether it helped readability.
I vote “no” — you don’t know to look way up higher in the conversation to find some new comments. It’s been messing me up these last couple days.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Arlo is surprisingly surprised by this accusation for a step-grandparent. Hmm…does A&J work on a sliding scale, or did they still get together in the 70s, meaning they’d be in their late 50s at the youngest?
It grieves me to admit I am 64, but every day I work outside in the Iowa heat and humidity until the sweat drips from the brim of my ball cap. From the front edge of the brim! Does this mean I am/am not an elderly neighbor?
“does A&J work on a sliding scale”
They age at about a rate of 2:1… 2 real years age them 1 year. Their son recently finished college and got married. They could be somewhere between mid 40’s and late 50’s. My daughter recently finished college and got married last week, so I think I have a good idea of how old A&J are, and “elderly” isn’t accurate, ya darn whippersnappers. Git off my…
“to somebody named Ashlee, probably anybody over 30 seems elderly.”
Janis’ namesake didn’t even make it to 30.
James — good, and sad, point: Jim, Janis and Jimmi were the founding members of Club 27. Not the EARLIEST members — people have since added pre-1970 members as far back as blues and jazz musicians in 1938 and earlier — so long as you died at 27 from tragic causes exacerbated by drug/alcohol abuse and mental illness exacerbated by your rock-and-roll lifestyle (which includes jazz and blues, because, well, music, alcohol, heroin, STDs, and mental illness weren’t invented in the 60s), you, too can join! So, even though the club was founded in 1970, the EARLIEST member is Alexandre Levy, who died in 1892. Okay, I think his inclusion is dubious, because we don’t KNOW that he abused alcohol and drugs or committed suicide or died in a fight or something like that — but given that his cause of death isn’t known, except that he didn’t have any known illnesses, died and 27, and wasn’t reported to be of an accident or a medical mystery… I’m willing to consider it.
Ha, ha, even thinking of “Ashlee” as a youngster name is a geezer thing. The name “Ashee” started in the early 1970’s, and peaked in 1987. So those born at the peak of Ashee popularity are already over 30, and an appreciable number are in their late 40’s.
https://www.babycenter.com/baby-names-ashlee-6105.htm
The downside of qualifying for senior discounts.
I love Arlo’s reaction! I’ve had that reaction myself in similar situations, like the first time a kid old enough to drive called me “ma’am”, when I was only 25! Sure, he was probably just a polite Catholic-school kid, but that truly hurt my feelings. Thankfully, nobody has ever yet asked if I want the “senior discount”, even though I’m now 55 and would qualify most places. I’ve never actually asked for it, either – I’m just fine paying full price, thank you! YMMV, of course.
I read the other day that some young pop star was hospitalized after a drug overdose, and my first thought was “She’s damn lucky she’s only 25.”
I was three years past my 65th birthday before I suddenly realized that as of that date I had qualified for a price-reduced senior municipal bus system card. I’d been riding the bus fairly regularly since I moved here in 1971, and for all those decades I’d known that the lower price option was available for riders 65 and over, but it literally took me three years to put the two factoids together in my head. “Wait, that would include ME .. . but how can that be, since I can’t possibly be that old, even though I’m that old?” sort of thing.
Arlo and Janis are still whippernsappers to me, but they’re nice folks so I won’t yell at them to get off my lawn.
@ WW – The SSA’s “baby name” search engine confirms 1987 as the peak year, but also revealed that “Ashlee” never made it into the top 100 names (for girls in the USA).
P.S. Just for comparison, Janis topped out at 108th place in 1947 (but dropped out of the top-1000 after 1979). Arlo never even made it past 667th place in the 1st half of the 20th century, and disappeared entirely during the 2nd half, only to stage a resurgence after 2011, making it all the way to 316th place in 2917.
I would imagine Ashley had always ranked higher than Ashlee.
“Thankfully, nobody has ever yet asked if I want the “senior discount”, even though I’m now 55 and would qualify most places. I’ve never actually asked for it, either – I’m just fine paying full price, thank you! YMMV, of course.”
Sigh…. I play board games with a group of millenials. I’m older but… cool and aware older. So one day two years ago we went to Denny’s at midnight and one of the twerps said (possibly joking; it’s really hard to tell with this particular one) that I could get the senior discount and I bristled that that was ridiculous. That’s for over 55 and i won’t be 55 for….. four months…. That *really* hurt.
@woozy, it definitely hurts even when it’s true! A few years ago, a subcontractor I was working with for just one day insisted he could guess my age – and then guessed it exactly (despite the fact we hadn’t spoken about anything that would give my age away) – and I briefly considered knocking the smug look clean off his damned face. :)
Starting a few months before I turned 60 and qualified for senior discount at my local swimming pool, the bods behind the counter tried to give the discount to me and I demurred, insisting on the higher price. However, since I turned 60 in January as often as not the on-duty bod would try and charge me full whack! Maybe once I actually turned 60 I relaxed and looked younger.
The only Ashley I know personally (son of a contemporary of mine) just turned 30.
“I would imagine Ashley had always ranked higher than Ashlee.”
Alas for poor Ashleigh.
The goggle eyes of horror in the final panel make this one entertaining.
Robert’s hair started going salt and pepper in his 20s, so he has looked older than he is for some time. On the other hand, I was 40 and sometimes still being proofed at movies. (Though apparently the bed bugs did me in – just before same, in a casual conversation a friend was surprised to hear how long we were married and figured I was 15 years younger than I was, after the bed bugs I started getting the senior offers.)
I already have the paperwork for the discount for the NYC subway (and LIRR and buses, which I don’t ride) waiting to be filed in and sent in. Best of all when I turn 65 my medical insurance premiums drop almost $500 a month.
Robert turned 65 last year. If I had thought ahead I would have done the paperwork the year before, so our senior tax exemption is not starting until the new school taxes next month – but paying half the real estate taxes will be very nice also. And we just received the renewal papers for it for next year.
Wendys offers a senior senior discount at 50 – we found out as they were offering it to Robert and he would explain he was younger than he looked and they told him, “no, no it starts at 50” So lunch for the 2 of us is $3 a day at Wendys – small burger plain for me, 2 for him and choice of 100 flavors of soda for free for each of us. One can also get coffee, ice tea or tea free. We are nice – we only have the soda. We have seen people come in and get the soda and the coffee both free – each in the couple. We go so often, okay 6 days a week, that when Robert goes in without me because I am working or at my embroidery chapter meeting, he has to stop them from ringing up my part of the order. :-)
When living on a tight budget, senior discounts help a great deal.
And neither of our “nice young couples with a little girl” next door neighbors, would check up on us.
Synchronicity… Today I heard from an Ashli.
I was waiting anxiously for my 50th birthday, because then I qualified to join my local senior center which has great classes and events. Joined on my birthday, started a ceramics course a month later. I’m enjoying myself tremendously.
I always thought it was seriously unfair when I was too old for the junior/student/etc discounts and too young for the senior ones – I’m still too young (51), but at least I can go to Mastick (the senior center).
@ Bill – “Ashley” is not just “more” popular, it was in the top-10 continuously from 1983 to 2004, hitting #1 in 1991 & 1992. However, even before it started to become a popular girl’s name (entering the top-1000 in 1964), it was in use as a boy’s name since (at least) 1901, peaking at #282 in 1980.
One of the reporters on the lo-cal TV news is named Ashli Lincoln.
Because Ashley isn’t conspicuously trendy enough, they have to fool with the spelling.
“Because Ashley isn’t conspicuously trendy enough, they have to fool with the spelling.”
Take it up with Madysen.
It’s weird that we didn’t even have the “Reply” feature in the July, but some of the comments from July, such as Bill’s, have been retroactively marked as replies, and nested. How the heck did that happen?
Ah, nesting. I switched on very limited nesting to see whether it helped readability.
I vote “no” — you don’t know to look way up higher in the conversation to find some new comments. It’s been messing me up these last couple days.
Okay, I’ll change it back.
Woo-hoo — I HOOOLD THE POWWWWER!