Barbers, Barbarians and Blow-Hards

Hi Carolyn,

So, we got back from  about 900 km of winter driving and am I glad. That had to be the most taxing winter driving I've dealt with in quite awhile - and I grew up in these kinds of conditions. Having the Great Lakes all around you means snow streamers galore.  It was a good family visit on both sides but edged with reminders that the term " Golden Years " can be a  misnomer sometimes. Now,  I did get to drive my dad-in-law to the barbershop that he's dealt with, on and off, for close to half a century. I was feeling adventurous so I decided to have my ears lowered too.




It turned into a genuine old-school barbershop experience. All that was missing was the haze of blue cigar smoke that would have hung over such a place half a century ago. At one point when the barber took his cup of soap, stubby brush and long razor and set to work on his captive customer,  I was immediately transported back to that short story that we all probably ran into at sometime during our early years of education - Just Lather, That's All. by Hernando Tellez . I always tried to use it, Asimov's The Fun They Had and selected parts of A Christmas Carol to read aloud to my grade six students back in my salad days of teaching. When I switched to grade eight I learned, to my dismay, that grade eighters saw themselves as "too cool" to actually be read to. The thought of reading to secondary school students simply didn't present itself, either.

Speaking of the young ones, I've been soap-boxing a bit lately about using kids to advertise. There seems to be a trend, in this area at least, of using kids to sell cars, winter tires, restaurants and such. These aren't creative little vignettes like the VW commercial of a couple of years ago, that use the innocence of youth as a means to propel things along, but rather bald-faced hucksterism where the kids are essentially being the pitchmen and the subliminal message is  "Buy this because I'm so young and cute-sounding ". It's insidious and barbaric marketing.  And don't even get me started on the Angry Birds Prepaid Visa Card thing for kids.

So, it's a short hop from barbarians to blow-hards and that seems to be one of the more absurd manifestations I've noticed this holiday season, as well - The so-called " War Against Christmas" . Normally I wouldn't pay it much heed, and the presence of Bill O'Reilly would effectively push me clear of the whole situation. It's gotten to the point, though, where it's intruding constantly into the regular news flow. It just won't go away quietly and expire. I wish it would, though. It's a very silly, red-herring paranoia. We ultimately keep the the season in our heads and hearts as we see fit, anyhow.



Carolyn, your notes on "the impatient society" , the "one size-fits all mentality" and the whole gamification thing are most intriguing. I can't wait to hear more as your research moves along. Our daughter published an article in one of the media journals a few months ago that looked at gaming and I know she was fascinated by the topic as well.




So, I have given it a bit of thought lately and decided that since you and I have cranked out a " lorry-load" ( as the Brits would say ) of riddles over the last year and a bit, that I will go into riddle withdrawal until 2014. I know that I'll never fully kick the habit but I think I'll wait until the dust has settled on this hectic season. I'll have five weeks in Mexico in Feb. and March to devote to replenishing the larder, anyhow.





 Hopefully all is going smoothly in these last days before the Yule tide rolls in.



Don



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