This is one of the few benefits of the otherwise bizarre phenomenon of the world becoming increasingly full of young people, whereas before it was full of old people.
Having children sharply accelerates this process, let me tell you.
Last night my cat, Leonardo, had stolen my favorite chair as usual, and it suddenly struck me how immune Leonardo is to the concerns of human monkeys. Paw draped over an eye, he just laid there ... cuter than hell ... and I didn't have the heart to shoo him off the chair, so I just let him lay there .. furball, paw, and all, and forgot what I was galled about. Maybe this is a good thing having a chair-klepto-cat around to recall the mind. My cat has become my chief political advisor and mental-health counselor.
3: swampcracker's willing to be a dork in this very thread!
My cat has become my chief political advisor
A more controversial choice than Obama made, but a better one than McCain did.
I've stopped giving a shit what most people think as I've gotten older.
It gets better and better, Becks. You have to stay financially viable, though, or they lock you up.
1: whereas before it was full of old people.
Fun fact: The number of people in the world older than you are is a monotonically decreasing function of time.
There certainly are some liberating aspects of growing old, despite its demonization. I don't think I'm allowed to say anything more than that.
There certainly are some liberating aspects of growing old
Eventually you become unfettered from the lunatic.
So the received wisdom is that footwear is most revealing. My winter boots are not this year's model, and I have a pair of bowling shoes in my drawer that I wear around the office when I clomp snow into the building. Or what about hoarding behavior, which usually reveals a neurotic anxiety of some sort-- I don't save old receipts and the like, but hate throwing away clothes that don't show visible wear. And books, books are hard for me to shed.
Getting older really does rock in this particular way.
There's a line in Gaudy Night that I won't be able to remember precisely, but the protagonist, observing embarassed and awkward undergrads, says that they're too young to know that "even the most crashing social brick makes but a small ripple in the ocean of time."
It occurred to me at some point when I was in high school that a significant advantage of having entered high school a social outcast whose status literally could not get any lower, was that there was no point caring what people were going to think, because things couldn't get any worse.
Fortunately for my future career, my idea of being a wild-at-heart friendless outcast was to spend a lot of time reading and the rest of the time writing. I also avoided taking up smoking (that was a social activity) and drinking (ditto). Occasionally, I paid attention in class.
It's a bit of a tradeoff for me. While I am increasingly unaffected by others' perception, I also care less overall and am apt to discount teh youth more freely. Eccentricity & iconoclasm [correct usage?] is ok; curmudgeonliness is dead boring.
The signs of my descent into dorkdom are legion: wearing socks with Birkenstocks, wearing black dress socks with shorts, purchasing music on CD's, getting excited about buying garden implements, driving a station wagon, going to bed at 10pm.
Fleur, God bless her, sometimes steers me away from my worst dorky tendencies (I gave all of the pleated trousers to Goodwill, didn't I, hon?).
No, you embrace the lunatic.
Do you need a hug, John?
9. Not that lunatic, John - the one in Sophocles. Since Kraab is quoting Dorothy Sayers, there's this:
As I grow older and older
And totter towards the tomb,
I find that I care less and less
Who goes to bed with whom.
No, you embrace the lunatic.
Huh. I thought you were anti-marriage, John.
14: You'll have to pry these pleated trousers off my cold, dead ass.
wearing black dress socks with shorts
This one I don't get. How does this happen?
re: 19
It's some sort of mental aberration. Perhaps some kind of small adenoma.
Or just pulling the first pair of socks out of the drawer and putting them on because you don't give a shit.
The signs of my descent into dorkdom are legion:... purchasing music on CD's
What? WHAT?!? Medium doesn't matter too much, people, so long as it's not unlistenable (I'm looking at you, CBR MP3s under 192 bps).
Glad to hear about the pleated trousers though. I still own one pair from my college suit which only have one pleat on each side, but I still feel like a tubby old man below the waist whenever I get stuck wearing them.
Or it's because, despite having reached unequivocal adulthood, you still can't manage to keep up with the laundry.
I'm pretty sure this is called becoming an adult, Becks. Some do it sooner, some later, some not at all.
_wearing black dress socks with shorts_
That was actually a youthful affectation of mine, a bit of punk/skate rock fashion that I liked and never much grew out of. Now it's no longer transgressive, though, but just a habit.
That was actually a youthful affectation of mine, a bit of punk/skate rock fashion that I liked and never much grew out of.
It was an actual fashion? We used to dress like that and claim it was a fashion, but I'm pretty sure we thought we were lying.
You embrace your own inner lunatic. You people.
You wear the bottoms of your trousers rolled, for example.
I've been wearing dark socks (I guess dress socks) with shorts for the past couple of years. But as a style thing. Does this mean I'm just an aging dork in denial?
30: We are all aging dorks in denial on this bus.
Men can wear shorts?
I believe the preferred term is "cut-offs".
Does this mean I'm just an aging dork in denial?
Special rules apply to gay men. Whatever they decide to wear is ipso facto stylish. Don't you watch Queer Eye?
This one I don't get. How does this happen?
Wait, you have infant twins and you have to ask this?
My twins are still in utero... I can't start blaming them for my failings for a few months at least.
Yeah, the sock/no-sock thing is a seasonal event. In the spring at some point: Woo-hoo! The first no-sock day, forever more! Uh. Until the fall at some point: Boo, the first sock day, sockless never more.
When I rule the world, national holidays will be of that nature.
34 reminds me:
Baby Brother here. I'm too lame to get a post up on my own blog, of course.
Working from home, I can go shockingly long periods without having to think about my personal appearance. There are certain limiting factors - Iris complains about whiskers, going out to a decent restaurant most weeks - but otherwise I have to occasionally remind myself that a stranger might not know that I'm a respected professional, and not, say, a superannuated grad student.
We used to dress like that and claim it was a fashion, but I'm pretty sure we thought we were lying.
Isn't that fashion?
so adorable a baby,
my nephew looked like a little old man, now he looks more rounder and puffy
I haven't worn socks since May
i experience that, duality of existence: outside - sockless, inside have to wear socks at all times and even a sweater inside the labcoat unless i want to suffer a summer cold
and the other beach going day my friends said me to colour my hair and i was not disappointed
i told them it's my genes showing up and i like the contrast of the graying hair with my youthful face
and that i'm not exposing myself to the threat of the breast cancer, though the risk is minimal
just to tease them
Oh, and when I mentioned to AB that I'd posted the birth here the other day, she was kind of baffled - like, it wasn't germane to a post, but I put it in a comment anyway? She finds our folkways foreign, and happily has no interest in exploring them (Hi, Fleur!).
41: you might think so, but see 44. If we had been the kind of people who start fashion trends, rather than the kind of people who sit around and smoke pot and eat ramen noodles, maybe.
re: 5
Perhaps I should also appoint Sir Cat as sous chef and financial advisor. Given the state of the economy these days, perhaps one should develop a taste for Frisky's Buffet avec Herbes de Provence.
Names can date you too - anyone here called "Reginald"?
Surely you are all aware that pleated pants are coming back? Being--in addition to a dirty fucking hippie--a little teensy bit trendy with the glasses, shoes and so on, I have already invested in two nice oversized pairs of pleated men's pants from the thrift store. Once the weather is a bit cooler (they're both cotton, but heavy) I plan to roll them up a bit and pair them with striped socks and close-fitting shirts of one kind or another. The effect is sort of eighties piratical; I may even wear them with my fakey-sorta-like-Vivienne-Westwood eighties strappy boots. (The most fashionable young thing I know has a pair of baggy pleated pants she's stenciled--Clashishly--with various political slogans and symbols)
I'm not going gentle into that good night, no sir!
Although I sometimes suspect that caring so much about the specs and the shoes and so on at my advanced age is a dorkiness all its own....
I wear dark socks with shorts now too. Mainly argyle socks.
I also saw two guys at the skatepark with duck tape on their shoes. As far as I am concerned that means it is back in fashion. Frugal and fashionable.
Given the state of the economy these days, perhaps one should develop a taste for Frisky's Buffet avec Herbes de Provence.
Cat food, especially brand name cat food, is surprisingly expensive on a per-pound basis compared to human good. Dog food a little less so because it comes in larger containers.
When low-grade canned tuna goes on sale, I buy it as an alternative to cat food, because it's cheaper and the cats like it better. We used to buy frozen cod filets and frozen chicken thighs and cook them for our cats (this was when we were sublimating our latent parental energy into animal-rearing), and it was about the same cost as canned food.
In other words, treat yourself to some cheap factory-farm raised meat, because it's no more expensive than Friskies. Unless you go the dry food route, in which case...
My own name is a lot more dated than I am. I don't think it's in danger of having a sudden surge of popularity, but it would be entertaining if it did. Still, I'd rather have a name that sounds like I should be working at Bletchley Park than one that sounds like I should be in preschool.
My own name is a lot more dated than I am
Aw, I would date you.
As I mentioned, I bought a hat and I dont care who sees me wear it!
Iris has friends named Millie, Ruby, and Sheldon. They mostly sit around and play canasta.
Snarkout is not allowed to post guesses.
I should have let you all go on longer.
52:Catfood is so expensive compared to human and dog food because cats require animal protein. There is strong evidence that the rise in kidney disease in cats is correlated to the use of vegetable protein (soy, corn, rice) in catfoods.
Because of the rise in grain prices, the cost of my staple kibble is up about 50% over a year ago, disguised as usual in a smaller package. When I first bought, it came in a 22 lb bag (certainly tricked down from 25) now it comes in a 20 lb bag.
I supplement it with a few tablespoons of canned, and several daily ozs of table scraps, which considering my own diet, means meat or fish. They don't eat the fruit or salad.
Sophia and Isabella were the most popular names for baby girls in 2007. I like those names, but they sure sound old-fashioned to me.
I have already invested in two nice oversized pairs of pleated men's pants from the thrift store.
I'd like to see "office cube-guy" fashion become the rage for women next year.
Catfood is so expensive compared to human and dog food because cats require animal protein
The high cost has made it damn near impossible to make an honest profit farming cats for meat.
Iris has friends named Millie, Ruby, and Sheldon. They mostly sit around and play canasta.
And gossip in ancient Greek.
In the form of teeny tiny shorts, women have been wearing variations on the gents khaki/pleat-front trouser for a while here.
My grandmother's best friend was nicknamed Bubbles. They started out as flappers, but a 75-year-old Bubbles is just not right.
Why didn't Becks specify what she did that was dorky? Inquiring minds! (Perhaps she's withholding because it can't possibly be as awesome as that time she silenced a couple of rowdy twinkies by dropping her robe at the spa. That's the kind of dorkitude the world needs more of!)
78: ridiculous nicknames that persist well into old age are something of a WASP touchstone. I know a Sissy who's nearly 90.
They started out as flappers
zomg that must have been adorable.
78: I have a great-aunt Kewpie. She's like 95.
ridiculous nicknames that persist well into old age are something of a WASP touchstone.
My great-aunt is called Tubby. Although not a WASP, still wealthy and crusty.
Bubbles and Kewpie are the most awesome old-lady names EVAR. mcmc, you are simply wrong.
52: That gourmet road kill is really jacking up the price.
I have a friend named Ve/lma born about 1955 of Ukrainian Canadian heritage. She was adopted out and named Di/ane, though/
I have to admit, I don't know if Kewpie is a nickname. I have never heard any other name for her, so I think it's her real name. I guess the difference between WASPy childish old-lady names and Southern lower-middle-class old-lady names is that the latter are actually on their birth certificates.
78: My grandmother's favorite piece on the piano was jada. She played (and sang) a more uptempo version.
85 That gourmet road kill is really jacking up the price.
Have you tried rigor mortis tortoise or poodles with noodles yet? Hmm ...
Pace Sifu supra, I can't imagine a "Sissy" who isn't already old.
ridiculous nicknames that persist well into old age are something of a WASP touchstone.
AB used to work with a woman who aspired to the local upper crust, including membership in the local museum's Women's Committee (really). The Committee was, of course, larded with elderly WASPs with absurd nicknames - I want to say there was a Poosie.
But my favorite was Cuppy, whose real estate agency was called "Cuppy RE." Why Cuppy? Because her nickname was Cupcake - a nickname for her nickname! And she used it professionally! Astonishing.
89: I used to have several Road Kill Cafe shirts as a lad.
I have a friend named Ve/lma born about 1955 of Ukrainian Canadian heritage.
I loathe that name.
I know a WASP named Tooey. I think that she wishes that she could shake the nickname, but I didn't feel at all friendly until I called her that.
But did you ever learn Cuppy's given name, JRoth? I bet not. Which prompts the question: are WASP nicknames part of an evil-eye-warding-off practice, or something?
"Cuppy" sounds like the adorable mascot for a magazine or society of antiquarian cutters.
A nice version of "Ja-da" can be found on Jerry Colonna's Music for Screaming.
What Bave said at 84. Old ladies should have names that recall their heydays.
But my favorite was Cuppy, whose real estate agency was called "Cuppy RE." Why Cuppy? Because her nickname was Cupcake - a nickname for her nickname!
Cf. "Muffy"
ridiculous nicknames that persist well into old age
...I've always liked those sorts of British novels where the upper middle class men are baptized things like 'John St. John Malthus-Taliaferro' and known to all as Pinkie or Bunny. I did have a great-grand-second-cousin sort of relative named Bunny, but since she was an elderly woman it wasn't the same thing.
Bunny
Like ... Edmund Wilson! How do you get that nickname, anyway?
My grandmother had one of the many puzzlingly derived nicknames for Margaret.
I know a Cricket (not old) and a Bunny (ancient). Actually, I've never met the latter -- she's an old friend of Snark's family, and sent us wedding congratulations signed (not her (late husband's) real name):
"Mrs. Albert P. Wexler (Bunny)"
I too would like to meet an actual male human with one of those nutty upper-crust nicknames, but perhaps they're all dead now.
101: And by happy coincidence I'm reading To the Finland Station right now. I had no idea that there was a Godless Communist Bunny.
(Oh, W-lfs-n--Due to your music posts, I have purchased via Ebay but have yet to receive the The Thing box set. Anticipation rules my days! (But then it generally does...the now is a drag, man.))
You know, come to think of it I had a relative (now deceased) who went by "Chum".
Henceforth, this [pointing to ben w-lfs-n] shall be dubbed Bunny.
When my son came through Wobegon he met a Tookie and a Tudy. He loved that.
Benazir Bhutto was known as "Pinky" in college. But they assassinated her anyway.
Tookie was a Republican banker, BTW, not the recently-executed drug dealer.
reposted from the other thread, me replying to McManus.
After you learn not to care about what other people think. then you learn not to care about what you yourself think, which is usually just an internalization of socialization anyway.
That's why it's dangerous to stop caring what other people think. It's a slippery slope from there to walking around muttering in your bathrobe. Or at least sleeping in every day.
I have a cousin (sadly with Alzheimers now) called Toppy. 90 something.
#104. Or a chet actually named "Chet."
One of my uncles (now deceased) was called "Skeeter" or "Skeets" his entire life. That was more good old boy than WASP, though.
I too would like to meet an actual male human with one of those nutty upper-crust nicknames, but perhaps they're all dead now.
Not President George H.W. "Poppy" Bush.
I once did work for a family-owned company where two of the shareholder-directors went by "Sonny" and "Pinkie". They weren't even WASPs.
Good ole boys are WASPS of the white trash type.
I believe the preferred term is "cut-offs" "daisy dukes."
Fixed.
My family tree is full of people with ridiculous and adorable names but that are also their given names. We don't have a single Bunny or Kewpie in the lot.
My family tree is full of people with ridiculous and adorable names but that are also their given names.
Like Robust McManly Pants?
47: good point, but see 50 & 74. (I suppose until the appropriation, it's mere style.)
Like Robust McManly Pants?
Pretty much.
118: Yo McManlyPants, you seen this?
HATEHATEHATEGODIHATEHERSOFUCKINGMUCH.
I have seen that, but as of yesterday nobody I know could turn up definite confirmation and on one of my listservs we were debating whether it was a hoax. Is it for real? If so, I can only imagine it's a desperate bid for the support of disciples of Helms by a Senator whose quickly-sinking reelection hopes are being watched with disinterest by the party whose Senate Campaign Committee she so miserably chaired two years ago and, you know what? She can fuck off.
I am pushing hard for our hypothetical son to be named "Isadore" after my GGF but the future Mrs. Wrongshore is not having it. She'll do Isadora for a daughter; I say that's piker stuff.
Right now the leading name for boy or girl is "Hateface Mazltov."
Ah, so so true.
I think as youngsters we have these really huge buttons and as we get older they shrink and fall off. Or maybe that is the umbilical cord. Or something. But I ramble.
As we age and lose our youthful joys we replace them with finding the buttons on our children and pushing them, hard. The kid's embarrassment is rather quaint and touching, really. They do care. Well, care that I embarrass them in front of their friends. But that is at least something.
In return they refuse to pick up their rooms, so I guess overall we are even.
debating whether it was a hoax
Nope. (See under SA 5074.)
"Isidore" seems more popular than "Isadore".
About 50 times more popular for I. of Seville, according to Google. W-lfs-n's hypothesis is tentatively accepted.
In return they refuse to pick up their rooms get off of my lawn, so I guess overall we are even.
Fixed.
"Isidore" is a good name, but then you have to continue the trend with any subsequent children. "Norbert", perhaps? "Mortimer"?
119: Fucking hell. I don't think I can improve on 120, so I'll just repeat it.
HATEHATEHATEGODIHATEHERSOFUCKINGMUCH.
I'm 23 and wondering how deep this runs? I've all but stopped caring about what people think about my clothes, apt, car, etc. However, I do care about my year-end review for work (even though most of these guys don't even know (yes i work with all white males and i am one as well)(can you guess what i do?))). i also care about what my friends and family think about my life. So does getting older mean you care less about work and family too, or were those implicity excluded and i missed it?
126: At the two names' peak (per NameVoyager), Isadore was the preferred spelling, 140/mil to 90/mil.
128: Sex Mob has a nice tune called "Norbert's Weiner".
Excuse me. "Norbert's Wiener". Stupid Matt.
"Isidore" is a good name, but then you have to continue the trend with any subsequent children. "Norbert", perhaps? "Mortimer"?
"Carmine"? "Irving"? "Solomon"? "Salvatore"?
then you have to continue the trend
Or you go in the opposite direction. "I'd like you to meet my children, Isidore and Slappy."
||
That Saul Alinsky was kind of a pithy dude!
|>
He thould be. I jutht pithed on him.
/ my grandmother's joke.
If I have a son and a daughter, and want to name them "Solomon" and "Tammy", am I sexist?
136: "I'd like you to meet my children, Isidore and Slappy."
Brilliant.
139: If I have a son and a daughter, and want to name them "Solomon" and "Tammy", am I sexist?
Possibly?
Melvin and Slappy would be good, in honor of one of our most unsung comedians.
She was interviewed for an article about pickles that's coming out next weds in the LAT food section!
Oh, great: congrats to Ben's sister. Why do they not link to her restaurant??
Pickles! Praises! W-lfs-ns take over the world.
Weird. I was positive "Ben W-lfs-n" was a pseudonym.
Excellent, W-lfs-n. Sincerely.
And the piece moves me just next to the point of listening to your cooking advice. I'm going to need a note from your sister accrediting you first, though.
Ammo! That is perpetually on my list of places to go. This should move it into the went column.
Woo! That's very cool, and I look forward to the pickle article. You must be proud.
Ben, if I go, how will it be received if I send word back to the chef that one of her brother's imaginary internet friends is there?
Love Ammo, and was there a few weeks ago. One of the best meals I've had in months, if not years, and it wasn't even that pricey. My favorite restaurant in Hollywood aside from Musso & Frank, which is not actually good, but still the best restaurant in the world.
I'm really not sure, actually. I could tell her an imaginary internet friend of mine is coming.
152: Maybe she'll comp you an imaginary appetizer.
153: do you travel with an entourage, these days?
Just say, "One of my imaginary internet friends, whose name I don't know, is stalking you. As far as I know, he's harmless. He admires you and your restaurant a lot, and I really mean A LOT."
156 Wait, M&F wasn't on Entourage, was it? I've only seen like two episodes of that show three years ago but if this means complete douchebagification of my favorite old persons joint I'm going to be pissed.
Or do you mean my gay metal entourage?
but if this means complete douchebagification of my favorite old persons joint
Given that Ruth Reichl used to rave about it when she was food critic at the L.A. Times, I think that's already happened.
158: I meant your gay metal entourage.
No old person joint in LA can possibly compare to Taix.
160 -- Cool. The entourage is smaller these days, but so are the assless chaps, so it's all good.
Taix is close to the perfect bar but the food is less weird and the martinis are marginally less good.
162: the food is none-too-weird, it's true. The martinis are at least always strong, and man it's so darn comfortable.
Yeah, OK, now I'm officially starting to get the get-me-out-of-the office (but I'm not an alcoholic!) shakes for that bar. Damn you Tweety.
Dude if I was on that coast I'd meet you there in a minute. That bar rules.
I'd rather be at Taix, but Musso & Frank's is surely the better place. The surliness of the museum-piece (union!) waiters, the absurdly high-priced creamed spinach; Taix is mellow and comfortable (but does have that high-priced mediocre food thing going for it.)
Taix also has dirt cheap valet parking (it used to be $1.25, though I think it's gone up). I usually stick to the Caesar, the French onion soup, and occasionally the steak frites, all of which are great.