The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for January 23, 2023

As we grow older we all look backwards. There is an Italian word for this: “catoblepismo”.

autopay baby!

1997! That was like 2 wives ago. Uncle Ted, while you know it"s 2023 go ahead and write the 2023 part on a few checks so you just need the month and day.

When I worked in a bank, if the date on a check was more than 6 months old we would not negotiate it. Except in January with a January date.

I think it’s time to move to the 21st century.

You only needed to write 97 on the checks back then. As far as I remember all bank checks came with the first two numbers 19, pre printed on the checks. That was a sort of banking convenience that people could save pen ink by only having to write the last 2 numbers in the date. That was also the reason that caused the Y2K crisis! Come January 2000, the banks were worried that people would write the date down as 1900 instead of crossing out the pre printed 19 and writing 20 over it! That means that the check would be 100 years old and should the banks still honor it not knowing if the funds would still be good.

When I get it wrong, I find I’ve written MMXXII. I just add an I.

maybe he should find a way to write it down on a piece of paper then only pull it out when you forget what year it is. :D

or wait, maybe the world celebrated the wrong year. :D

When I used to write a lot of checks, at the first of the year I would pre-date the year on all the checks in my checkbook. By the time the checks were gone, my mind had gotten used to the date change.

Not written a check in over 20 years. Don’t know if my checkbook is still valid? Maybe outdated. Not to worry – no plans of ever writing another.

Our DMV has a service charge if you pay on-line, but no extra fee if you mail in a check. Sheesh!

certain years seem to stick in one’s mind… I had 2004 on the brain for years afterward.

Only Uncle Ted Thornapple would be so forgetful that he dates his checks 25 years in the past.

2023 hasn’t been a problem like last year. I guess I’m not anxious to hang on to ’22.

I did that once a couple of years ago. Fortunately, I always double check, so my 1998 check didn’t make it into the envelope. That memory ensures I’ll continue to double check.

1997….OOPs…….

You better Check yourself Uncle Ted!

Go with a good year and maybe things will get better…

Never did that big of one. Done two years off a couple of times in the past. Only write a few checks a year now. However, whenever l sign a form or document, l always still have to think out the full month day and year. I’m in good company it seems…..

Truly funny and original take on an old premise. Few things out us boomers as much as writing checks. I write one a month, to the lady who cuts my hair so she doesn’t have to pay the credit card processing fees.

I’m still writing ‘Year of the Tiger’ on my checks.

I don’t write 1997, but I am where Uncle is.

Well it was a very good year.

I do find myself on a rare occasion randomly writing a wrong date. Like really wrong. I catch it, but I wonder where my brain was when it thought writing something like 1998 was the right thing to do. I am surprised Uncle Ted does it – he seems so organized and efficient for some reason. I picture him having a desk with a calendar on it so he’s sure of the date. Most of us can check our watches and/or phones.

I love Uncle Ted!!

i’ve mentioned before that checks have never really been a thing in japan and, checking just now, i see that the u.s. embassy has finally joined the modern age and allows online payments for passports and other transactions. previously, a money order in u.s. dollars was required (talk about rigamarole)…

My mother could never adjust to dates later than 1999. I kept telling her that once we got past 1999 we added 1 and that made it 2000. Maybe that was a sign of the coming years’ adventures.

This reminds me of a comic strip that goes back even farther than Uncle Ted’s memory glitch. The one I recall was a Sunday strip, published at the beginning of 1978. It showed a long line of people at a bank, where the teller instructs the customer at the head of the line that he has to redo his withdrawal slip, because it’s now 1978, not 1977. In the second panel we see the entire line of customers has turned around, and they’re now lined up at the counter with the chained-up pens, as they wait their turn to redo their paperwork.

I’m almost positive I have the right year, but I am dead certain the strip was Morrie Brickman’s The Small Society.

In all fairness, 1997 was a much better year than any of the recent ones.

High school seniors do not know how to write a check. They will struggle to figure out how to deposit their graduation gift checks.

I hope Uncle Ted’s just joking, because I’d hate to think it’s an early sign of dementia. I like Uncle Ted just the way he is!