Old Man Yells At Cloud - my Facebook posts

 I realised this week that I'm posting a few things on Facebook that do make me sound like a very old man being reactionary about the century he's now forced to live in. And although that is occasionally how I feel, it's largely not. And I'm certainly not a whingeing Daily Mail reading anti-Woke "Old Man Yelling At Clouds". I hope. But when a couple of my posts attracted "that" sort of comment, I had cause to ponder. Here for example is me showing sympathy for Harry Styles at the Grammys...

Feb 7: I know what Harry Styles means by “people like me” not winning Grammys. He’s working class and Northern.

Who was the last British Northern working class pop star to win a Grammy?

*Googles* So far I find Robbie Williams had 2 noms 0 wins, Take That not even a nom, Spice Girls no nominations. Go on, find me a Northern working class Brit with a Grammy, then you can have a go at Harry Styles.

Update: I've googled again, and there have been 90 British acts nominated for Grammys, which doesn't seem like many. And some of the most likely contenders didn't even win one - Queen for example. I haven't totted up how many are "Northern" or "working class", but considering the first five people to fall into that category are either former Beatles or Sting, I stand by my original point - being Northern and working class and British means that you're allowed to say "people like me don't often win Grammys". QED.

So far so innocuous I thought. Indeed the only comments for a bit were people trying to find Northern working class examples (and suggesting Billy Bragg and Paul Weller, which rather proved my point). Then I got this comment:

Bless him for not being a ME ME ME pronoun user

I mean, what? Where did that come from? But, I guess, if I'm being reactionary about the response to Harry Styles (which, I realise, is from Americans thinking that when you say "people like me" you mean white, which is not what Harry Styles meant) then I can appearing to be singing from the same songsheet as people who have a problem with pronouns. 

For the record, a couple of years ago I did make the gag that Sam Smith calls themselves 'they' because they are both Sam Smith and Tom Petty. And you will find me discussing whether another term that isn't also a plural wouldn't have been a better choice. But I'm happy with people's choice of pronouns, thankyou very much. (Not least because the Scottish Falsetto Socks are beneficiaries of the trend - no danger of an MC referring to "him" rather than "them" any more.)

Here was another post where I realised I was being reactionary, and questioned it out loud:

Feb 2: Watching The Apprentice again. Do we really have to pretend we don’t think lip fillers look awful? Is it really body shaming to tell people we think they’re doing possible permanent damage to their faces? What happens, after years of over stretching the skin, when it has to contract?

And worst of all, is it supposed to make people look more wealthy or upmarket? Cos it invariably makes people look common.

Am I the bad one for thinking these things?

This time it was a good friend's comment, from the side of the angels, that made me feel like the bad guy. They wrote:

You should be able to do what you like with your own body without fear of judgement or ridicule. I expect a lot of people think I’m “common” cos I’m covered in tattoos but it’s fuck all to do with them

You see my dilemma. Because I'm old, un-tattooed, un-surgeoned, cis-male, binary, white, and lower middle class, I stand outside many of the cultural debates that rage around me, and try to stay informed. Sometimes it's hard to not appear to be the enemy. I'm not, honest.

*******

Here are some more recent, less contentious, posts.

Feb 1: Although I had sympathy with the flat owners you can see from the Tate (I’ve looked into their lounges too, and it felt rather invasive) I’ve long wondered why people live in places that you can see right into.

Why do people with the most money and, you’d think, the most to hide live in these goldfish bowls? With a good pair of binoculars you could be in the room with them.

And no curtains? Madness.

Hands up who’d forgotten there was a Beano website?

Just don’t go there looking for comic strips!

21st century Polari in action. Folks have to use code. Always have, always will.

100 years ago folks, Inc gay men but also workers in certain jobs, your criminals and others too, used Polari , and also Rhyming Slang and Backslang, and Pidgin, so outsiders wouldn’t understand.

Now kids on TikTok talk about “mascara” and “Le Dollar Beans”. It’s brilliant, inventive, and as old as language itself. Vive la difference engine.

Naturally I agree with everything in this article (and, being in Ireland this week, I've had a few chats about Brexit, during none of which have I been able to explain what Brexiteers were thinking or what they actually wanted. I may never know) but my issue is another of those phrases I've grown to hate:

"Thrown under the bus"

When did this phrase start? How has it become so ubiquitous? And what phrase did we use before?

My other betes noire of the moment are "distruptor", and people saying "100%" when they mean "I agree" (though this might only happen on The Traitors).

Update: Thanks to Louisa in the comments for the Wikipedia link (which I could have found, honestly). It goes on to explain how 'throwing under the bus' explodes in US political journalism in the late 2000s. So it really hadn't been a phrase before then.

The Cyndi Lauper example given, from 1984, has a totally different meaning (being in the bus vs under the bus, suggesting a metaphor of someone clinging on like a stowaway rather than being pushed in front of a moving vehicle).

Wonderful to see how a metaphor develops.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood have rung from 1984. They’d like their story back.

Best quote from this story, from Zoe Kravitz: “It’s completely normal for people to be in the family business. It’s literally where last names came from. You were a blacksmith if your family was, like, the Black family.”

Oh good, something new to hate. Not the show, I’m sure I’ll love that. No, the release date.

On ITVX on Thursday, but not on ITV itself till “a later date”. Which means you can only watch it either a) with adverts you can’t fast forward through or b) by paying extra for it.

Public service broadcasting in 2023. Innit marvellous.

Alexa, give me an example of the worst comedy idea it is possible to have in 2023.

My Books and where to get them:

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy 
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Lulu

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 - Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper