Gas prices stabilized on Saturday, which means they went up a little bit from the day before. For most of the week, prices were dropping by five to ten cents a day. From a high of around $3.15 down to $2.65 ($2.59 at one place, which was packed on Friday because it was one of the cheapest gas stations in the city).

As some people like to point out, this is really cheaper than it was in the late 70s (it still cost less than a buck then, but if you blah blah blah inflation blah blah blah Carter was a better ex-President than a blah blah blah shit and shinola blah). Here's something people don't talk about when comparing the now to the 70s: If you account for inflation, blow jobs are cheaper now than they were in the 70s. But, as the Narco Police like to point out, pot is stronger than it was in the 70s (and, why Mr. Narco, is this a bad thing?).

Are movies better now than they were in the 70s? I couldn't really tell you. I saw maybe five or six new movies in the theater in the 70s. Star Wars, Close Encounters, some non-Disney Pinnoccio that scared the shit out of me. And I think there was this Gary Coleman horse racing movie--though that probably was in the 80s. I didn't see the Exorcist or Taxi Driver or The Godfather (1 or 2) or Annie Hall or Caddyshack. I saw Animal House for the first tim on TV, edited. I didn't understand why John Belushi fell away from the sorority girl's window until the late 80s. And I also didn't understand why that girl who caused Belushi to fall never got to be a huge movie star. But you know what? Movies were cheaper in the 70s. I should have gone to more of them, but I didn't have much money.

When the ball dropped on 1979, ushering in the great 80s revolution of greed and separation of the poor from people who made a lot of money and didn't want to think about the poor, the Ma Bells split into regional phone companies and AT&T became a public company. Why do I remember this? Because I stayed up till midnight on December 31st, 1979, possibly for the first time, and 1980 came into being, not with an apple falling, but with a huge AT&T logo lighting up at the end. Talk about foreshadowing.

Later in 1980 I would be thoroughly confused and somewhat pissed when I saw The Empire Strikes Back. That lying sombitch Vader told my hero some big time lies. Vader is Skywalker's father? I didn't believe it. But Luke did. And that's what pissed me off. Why is the hero so stupid? Eventually, I'd really like this flick--much better than Return of the Jedi--but as an 8-year-old, I really didn't get the whole Arthurian tragedy thing.

I remember my parents watching the Presidential debates in 1976, but I couldn't tell you what happened. For the longest time, my parents allowed me to believe Ford was President when I was born (in 1972), but it really was Nixon. I was born in Washington D.C. while the evilest President ever was in power. So was Nixon a better president than the one we have now? Was the personification of absolute power corrupting absolutely actually better than what we have to deal with now? Yes. But if you factor inflation into the equation, Nixon was worse because he was older and should have known better. We shouldn't blame Bush, the sequel, because, relatively, he's just a baby. Of course, he's an elected baby, put into power by barely half of the babies who bother to vote in this nation, many of whom changed their minds right after they left the voting booth. But they're just babies, so we can't really blame them, can we?

Is buyer's remorse worse now than in the 70s? Because in the 70s it was pretty hard to get credit, and now they give credit cards to babies at birth. Every baby born now is already thousands of dollars in debt, so we might as well make them start paying right after we smack them on the ass.

Some things haven't changed much since the 70s. I had two brothers and a mom and a dad. I still have all of them. Didn't cost me nothing. At least not in anything that could be recalculated with inflation. I didn't get an extra brother because they're cheaper now.

Here's something all those people who always compare prices of things from the 70s to prices of things now never talk about: things cost more now because we buy everything on credit, which means we're paying interest on everything we buy. I think the interest trumps inflation--even if interest is cheaper now. Why? Because everything costs more money now than it did in the 70s--so you're paying more in interest because the base price interest is based on is more than the 70s.

I don't want to go back to the 70s. I really couldn't do much back then. I wasn't even 10. And, as I knew way back then, turning 10 is like entering a whole new world. I guess inflation ain't always bad.

Matt Worley costs more than he did in the 70s. But he's worth it.