This is the Prologue from a novel called Exit Sherlock Holmes by Robert Lee Hall:
London has changed; the world has changed. Hansom cabs no longer rattle through the rain, nor does the sea-coal flame upon the hearth in the sitting room at Baker Street. where once I was privileged to take my well-won ease with the best and wisest man whom I have ever known.
These are my thoughts as I sit, propped up by two great pillows in bed in my third-floor room at Bart’s, looking down upon the snarled traffic on Little Britain where it curves to become King Edward Street. Double-decker red omnibuses spew their exhaust into the air, as do the black boxlike taxicabs and other motorcars that have replaced horse-drawn vehicles on London’s thoroughfares. As my old friend predicted it would, the world has changed indeed.
It is 1930.
Note the Copyright: Copyright © 1977 by Robert Lee Hall.
That’s thirty years ago.
This text stands up. It is entertaining. It is compelling. It still has value.
Now, you fucking assmonkeys nurturing hemorrhoids at your desktops while you wait for the latest version of your code atrocity to compile — show me some fucking computer code from thirty years ago that the general public is using today on their home PCs.
You can’t.
So stop waving your dick around as if today’s bullshit you’re sweating over is going to catapult you into some kind of eternal fame.
You’re a fucking ASCII plumber. You’re no star. Remember that.
Now get back to putting that pipe in, you self-deluded eejit.