Dear 100-Year-Old-Self,

Did the New York Jets ever make the playoffs again?

Did George R.R. Martin ever finish A Song of Ice and Fire?

Did Patrick Rothfuss ever come out with book 3?

Can you still drink coffee at 100?

Did it keep getting hotter and hotter?

How hot is it in the summer?

How hot in the winter?

Do we still fight constant wars?

How are any humans still alive?

Only you?

Do humans still laugh?

Did we learn anything at all?

Any fucking thing at all?

Please reply. We have no answers here.

Best Regards,

Gene G. McLaughlin 2026

I would go on a shopping spree at Toys R Us in 1980. When I was a kid I always saw the advertisements for Toys R Us on TV and couldn’t believe that such a place existed. The closest one was far away in North Jersey. How could anyone get there? North Jersey! It might as well have been Oz. It just seemed impossible. Luckily my parents eventually took me in their orange VW fan on a pilgrimage to the holy location of adolescent consumerism a few years later, but it never lived up to my imagination upon first seeing the TV ads. Locally in 2026 I would probably choose the mundane location of Barnes & Noble.

Gene G. McLaughlin 2026