so disappointed...

[SamMarlowPI]

i'm tellin' ya', this generation is the sorriest bunch of pitiful little scraggly people i've ever seen...and unfortunately i'm in it...:eusa_doh:

 

[T.E.W.Clough]

Truly a sad state of affairs. Such a level of ignorance should not go un-rectified.

Great T-shirt though.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

good news!!
right now i'm taking an acting summer class at the same school and i wore the same shirt today(first day) and this girl, who is younger than the previous fool, said "i love billie holiday"...i said(to myself) YES!! and then outloud, "oh yah? she's my favorite singer" and she said, "yah she is really great"
so, in the end, it kind of balances out...just thought i'd throw that out there...i guess this generation isn't as far gone as i thought...

 

[Maguire]

Oh believe me i've had it pretty bad. I used to have a picture of stalin somewhere, i believe it was my avatar and i had someone ask me why i had a picture of "hitler" on a specific site. This was a grown person asking me.

And then there are the che shirts. I'm sure everyone's seen people wearing those, it seems che is the most fashionable commodity (i'll bet the man would be rolling in his grave if he knew what one photograph would cause). Yet i'm pretty sure most people wearing those shirts have no idea who he is or what he really stood for. I used to own a few, but i refrain from wearing them because someone may confuse me for some idiot Rage Against the Bedtime type. Leave it to consumerist society to turn a militant, uncompromising marxist into some kind of hip fashion icon.

I've had this happen dozens of times. Its amazing how anytime someone sees someone wearing a uniform in a photograph they assume its Hitler.

but i'd be willing to bed my life savings that the average person on the street could pick paris hilton out of a thousand other blonds or tell me who won the last basketball/baseball game without second though.

Excuse my lengthy rant., i'd probably have others to mention but i'm feeling really out of it now for some reason.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

It's like almost 20 years ago...I was office manager at a big accounting firm. I had a Noel Coward CD playing in my office after hours as I wrapped up a few things and one of the junior partners came in (5+ years older than I at the time) and said, "Cool song. I think I saw him in Vegas a couple years ago." "Couldn't have been him...he died in 1973." "Well, it must've been his son...great show!" "Uh...yeah...right...so, just what is the horrifically unpleasant task you need me to do for you requiring all this buttering up?"

(And some of you are laughing with me, and some of you are wondering why you don't get it...)

 

[BellyTank]

... by the way, which one's Pink?

Led Zepellin? yeh, he's good.


B
T

 

[Vintage Raven]

I can only relate to all these experiences; I was goofing around at work talking about some wacky inventions I had thought about, and when they laughed at them I said; Haha, well, they laughed at Jules Verne!

All I got was blank stares, and some of these people were about 45 years old!

Don't people read classics or listen to real music anymore???

 

[mtechthang]

Ummm. No. Not really.

Don't people read classics or listen to real music anymore???

Vintage Raven- well not really. But the assumption that they used to is, I'm afraid, really pretty much that you were a good chooser of friends!! I.e., your circle of friends is probably better read than the average bloke or Shelia (homage to our Aussie friends!!).

As a college prof, I'm constantly hearing folks talk about how poorly prepared our 1st year students are. Seriously, I think the data and research are pretty clear that only small segments of society have been well read at any point. If we grow up around a group that is well read, we tend to think that most people do read the classics. (And our student's are poorly prepared for college but I don't think it is any worse now than in the early/mid eighties.) They need examples and patient direction to find the reason to read.

fftopic: Watch, "The Squid and the Whale". The premise is basically a struggling Prof writer (who can't match the success of his first novel) and his spouse (who writes a very successful novel). They turn out to be two different types of snobs. But the youngest son is a true charmer. There is this great scene where he refers to himself as a "Philistine" as his dad tries to convince him he isn't ("Because you like books!"). I guess I'd rather be a philistine who likes books!! lol lol

 

[charlie farley]

so I go into my sociology class and I have my Billie Holiday shirt on...I pass by a freshman and she says "who is that on your shirt?" I said, "Billie Holiday" and she says........"oh, I think I've seen him in a movie before..." I kept walking and sat down...so sad...*sigh*...

I bet she thought you meant Buddy Holly.That happened to me ages ago.I was in a bar and the barmaid says "what music do you like?" ....."Billie Holiday"...."oh Buddy Holly?"...."no, cloth ears,Billie Ho...oh nevermind"

 

[SamMarlowPI]

makes sense...but then again there is the matter of confusing billie with a man...lol

 

[SamMarlowPI]

makes sense...but then again there is the matter of visually confusing billie with a man from my shirt...lol

 

[SamMarlowPI]

happened again...lord...little pitiful highschooler said, "who's that guy on your shirt?"...shakeshead

 

[Paisley]

I was doing my parents' taxes when my father got a call from a telemarketer. To get him off the phone, my father said, "I can't talk, I've got a guy here doing my taxes." Thanks, Dad.

 

[Brinybay]

Oh believe me i've had it pretty bad. I used to have a picture of stalin somewhere, i believe it was my avatar and i had someone ask me why i had a picture of "hitler" on a specific site. This was a grown person asking me.

That or they confuse Stalin and Lenin. Fremont, a somewhat "funky" (for lack of a better word) neighborhood in Seattle, has a statue of Lenin, imported when the Soviet Union fell. I was talking to a young girl once and she referred to the statue of "Stalin" in Fremont. When I corrected her and told her that's not Stalin, it's Lenin, she said (not joking, you can't make this up), "No it's not! John had long hair and he wore glasses!"

(Well, I suppose I should give her points for knowing who the Beatles were.)

 

[David Conwill]

The Beatles, you say? Ah yes, that new group from England.

I thought this was John:

His hair is awfully long, but I don't see any eyeglasses.



-Dave

 

[J. M. Stovall]

What's the whole story on the statue of Lenin in Seattle? Not that I mind, just curious is all.

 

[Brinybay]

What's the whole story on the statue of Lenin in Seattle? Not that I mind, just curious is all.

You can read about it here, and other off-beat places in and around Seattle. I don't agree with the articles contention that the "artistry" of the statue outweighs the monster Lenin, but that's just my opinion. We're talking about Fremont, after all, who's residents refer to themselves as "Fremonsters".

 

[Chas]

Now, if you were to wear an Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis T-Shirt, I would be impressed. Otherwise, no. This has given me an idea. I think that I will start my own t-shirt line with images of the truly cool, copacetic and otherwise hep to the real deal cats and kittens on it. That way, we in the know will recognize the truly cool and hep to the real deal on sight.

Suggestions will be considered. Here is my Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Tee:

No Beatles, no Elvis or other mainstream schlockmeisters will be considered.

 

[Brinybay]

The Beatles, you say? Ah yes, that new group from England.

I thought this was John:

His hair is awfully long, but I don't see any eyeglasses.



-Dave

Apparently her only memory of him was when he was wearing glasses.

 

[Chas]

And my Mel Torme T Shirt....