Tuesday, July 9, 2019

it's so hard to keep this smile from my face




     It's interesting how words change their meanings in the English language -- and probably all languages.  Over time, the way people use a particular word can evolve.

     There were scrapbooks in the world before "scrapbooking" became a "thing" in the early 2000s.  But when that wave of super-popularity hit, the word began to be used as a verb as well as a noun.

Noun:  "Here is my scrapbook."



Conjugated as a verb:
Today I scrapbook.
Yesterday I scrapbooked.
Tomorrow I will have been scrapbooking.


     ("You want to vent?  You want to scrapbook?  You want to get revenge?")



----------------------- (How do these trends happen?  In the 2000s, scrapbooking.  In the '90s -- jet skis...Is it just whatever they tell us to buy...?)


     The Netflix series "Grace and Frankie" seemed at first to have two themes:

1.  Older folks are people, too.  And
2.  Some folks are gay.

     
     There are other aspects of life besides those two that the show touches on:  for example, the ubiquitous presence of technology in modern life -- the people in that show are always texting and using social media and being ring-toned-at by their phones.

They also mention the need to unplug sometimes -- Jane Fonda's character says in one episode, "I just want to have a martini and watch that show where terrible people buy tiny houses."


     One of this show's creators is Marta Kauffman, who also was a creator and executive producer of "Friends."




     As intro music to "Grace and Frankie" they sometimes use a popular Seventies song, "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel.



Yeah, I don't know why I came here tonight
I got the feeling that something ain't right
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you...



-30-

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