47 thoughts on “I am honored!”

  1. How silly. If they don’t want to appear to be rendering a normative judgment, just eliminate all the writing before the colons

    The descriptors (“adult” etc.) convey no information needed for decision-making.

    1. Most of the time we are polite but this is not Canada here. Keep your idiotic criticisms to yourself. Those “normative judgments” are designations for the buttons below.
      We Portlanders try to be polite and economical.
      Now piss off. Please?

      1. So just label the categories and buttons 1, 2, 3. Or A, B, C. Is there some Portlandian aversion to lettered/numbered choices? How do you deal with multiple choice tests? Option Fun, Option Good, and Option Happy?

        1. Maybe it means you are no longer an adult! 🙂

          That sign seems very Shakespearian to me –
          “The sixth age shifts
          Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
          With spectacles on nose and pouch on side”!

          I had better get me pantaloons!

        2. I’m sorry that it came off sounding harsh. It was supposed to be funny by playing off of the Canadian’s penchant for politeness and the please at the end. Would it have been more obvious if I had said “kindly piss off please? Thank you.”
          I hope you are enjoying your visit. I’m interested in your assessment of the food here. I know we are known for food carts but have you been able to find a good restaurant?
          My wife and I are always looking for somewhere new to try.

  2. Will I be unable to ride if I go there?..or is it free? I am over 65 and not a citizen, so satisfy none of the criteria.

  3. You know that you are doing well when the classification for over 65 is the same as disabled.

    I really don’t like the “senior citizen” discounts. It’s a bit embarrassing and generally not needed. At 25 to 40 is when I needed it.

    1. Seems reasonable to me to have a lower fare for citizens who will generally be on a fixed income and/or not working full time. That would actually encapsulate both of the last two options. OTOH, social security is *supposed* to be adjusted for inflation, so retirees might reasonably be lumped into the full fare category using the argument that their income goes up with cost of living just as a full time worker’s is supposed to. Actually now that I think about it the social security COLA is probably higher than the average annual wage adjustments for some professions.

      1. Yeah, I think you almost talked yourself out of it. But regardless of social security and all that, the trend with most is that we likely climbed a ladder over time and those early years are when times were tough. Of course, had the republicans had their way over the past 80 years or so there would be no social security, no medicare and come to think of it, no one over 65.

      2. “Supposed to be” is right. Social Secutity COLAs for the past four years were:
        January 2013 — 1.7%
        January 2014 — 1.5%
        January 2015 — 1.7%
        January 2016 — 0.0%.
        Anybody believe that the cost of living didn’t go up in 2015?

    2. In London citizens aged 60+ get free travel on all public transport within the Greater London area. Sorry you don’t like it but we do.

        1. That and the free prescriptions. Every year there are less things I can eat and more medications to remember

    3. The over-65 group in Britain are starting to enjoy the … options.
      Several weeks ago, I was preceeded ont the bus by a “senior” who simply wanted to spend the morning being driven around, but didn’t want to miss Afternoon Tea.
      “Power to his bus pass”, I thought.

      1. Yes but, the pensionable age is no longer fixed at 65 here. For me it will be 66, for those younger, creeping up!

        1. Yeah, my pension won’t kick in until I’m 70.
          But those who hit 65 more than a handful of years ago are (mostly) retired now. Even my permanent student friend (he was a student from 51 to 68) has finally given up and retired to a life of growing old disgracefully. Shame I missed his 70th, but he forgot to send me the address until 12 hours before the party started.

    1. I thought it was a euphemism for “Special interest voting bloc nobody wants to tick off.”

      1. No, that would be AARP. I think they start coming after you at about 50 if I can remember that far back.

        They are both a lobby and an insurance company I believe.

  6. Adult: pension fund collapsed/paying alimony/paying child support/unemployed/homeless/high on weed/depressed…

    1. My dad hates it when people in health care call him “deary”.

      I have ailments that usually happen to seniors so I witness how they talk to me vs. them and they treat them like they are children.

      1. Oh my, I hope no-one tries that on me. Somebody I haven’t been introduced to using my first name is bad enough . . .

        1. When my father was in his 80s, waitresses would call him “young man.” “And what can I get you, young man?” He HATED it. If anyone is under the impression that this is ingratiating, it isn’t.

          2. And since they aren’t here to express an opinion, some children too. I only know this because I remember, as a child, feeling condescended.

            It’s from my experience as a child, then a woman that I think made me more sensitive to observing how people speak to seniors. I decided, while still a child, that I would talk to everyone the same way. No silly voices (that’s for the dog, who probably knows it’s condescending but can’t help finding it funny) or fluffy words. And I find people generally like that better.

  8. I’m passed the 65 mark myself, but I don’t like any special euphemisms. And please, nothing with ‘golden’ or ‘silver’.

    Sheesh. I’m just like everyone else.

    2. Honoured is perhaps a well intended effort but still seems to be a little patronising.

      When a bunch of us ex-work colleagues get together for lunch every couple of months we call ourselves ‘the Old Gits’. I’m not expecting to see that displayed above any button.

      1. I’d like to see a button for Curmudgeons. It would bring a little joy into my day, to get a discount for having to move around while living this miserable life.
        I think I’d like to come back as an amoeba or a toadstool.

      2. When my once sea-going Dad was getting elderly, he and a bunch of his cronies got together regularly for coffee. They called themselves, “the ancient mariners.”

  9. A 6 year old traveling alone? In Portlandia?? I’m down with that. Honored citizen? Possibly means they worked until true retirement age instead of moving to Portlandia to be a 30+ retired hippie.
    Relax folks. It’s a joke. Unless you think I have appropriated and disrespected the hippie lifestyle.

    1. The One True Hippie Remaining would disrespect your disrespect.
      A depressing number of my associates take the attempted slur “superannuated hippie” as a compliment or an aspiration.

  10. In Brisbane, I’m a ‘senior citizen’ and delighted to have the discounts that goes with it.

    1. Nope. Honoured Citizens and Youth have to pay, but with a 50% discount.

      Theoretically, per the fee schedule a 6 and a 7 year old can travel together for $1.25 for a 2.5 hour pass. Probably not going to happen, though.

  12. Would Donald Trump force the addition of a 4th category : “Honoured Illegal Immigrant” ?

    1. No, Trump would add “Honored Illegal Immigrant”, without the u in Honoured. American should be written properly.

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