Category: Albuquerque

“In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson WARNING:  The program you are about to see…seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices and concerns.  By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show–in a mature fashion–just how absurd they are.”  With that stark warning, the landmark satire All in the Family debuted on January 12th, 1971.  No television program–before or since–has changed the face of television to the extent All in the Family did.  Some credit it for ushering in the era of political correctness. At its peak, All in the Family was the highest rated television show in America from 1971 through 1976, commanding as many as sixty percent of all television sets across the fruited plain.  Many tuned in to see what the show’s central character Archie Bunker would say or do.  A bigoted loading dock worker from Queens, Archie unabashedly expressed his every racial and political view, all of which were borne out of negative stereotypes, intolerance and ignorance.  Invariably his malapropisms and foibles made for very humorous television. In one especially memorable episode, the target…

All day I’ve faced a barren waste Without the taste of water, cool water Old Dan and I with throats burned dry And souls that cry for water Cool, clear, water. – The Sons of the Pioneers Cool Water!  For all of us who have experienced the energy-depleting sensation of being parched on a sweltering, sudorific day in the desiccated southwest, there is nothing which will quench that thirst better than cool water.  Country crooner Marty Robbins sang about it in 1959 when he released his version of the classic Sons of the Pioneers song, his velvety smooth voice conveying the anguish of a man (and his mule Dan) in dire need of cool water’s life-giving, energy-replenishing qualities. Cool Water!  From the sense that in the American vernacular, being cool is hot, being bad is good and being really great is wicked, “cool water” conveys something superlative, exciting or attractive as opposed to something merely acceptable, ordinary or satisfactory.  The word “cool” acquired that connotation in the jazz era, but the slang term reached its pinnacle in popularity in the 1950s when the beatniks of the age used it to differentiate themselves from the “straights.”  Cool could mean relaxed, laid-back,…

“The older you get, the less cool you are.” At least that’s what my some of my twenty-something-year-old colleagues have told me when I’m not able to relate to the conventional mindset of the Y-generation (usually on matters such as what constitutes flexible work schedules and professional business attire).  If the term “fuddy duddy” wasn’t so uncool, that’s probably what they’d call me. Interestingly, just twenty-something years ago, I was among the cool generation of the time–one in the long line of generations that thought we had everything figured out.  Older people, we thought, were just a bunch of clueless doofuses (probably not a cool term either) who didn’t know anything.  Unlike preceding generations, we were cool and thought we always would be. Advanced geriatric progression has taught me there’s nothing as cool as being comfortable in your own skin–not being concerned with what’s deemed cool and what isn’t.  This acquired wisdom has helped make each year happier than the previous, a sentiment shared by most of my fifty-something friends who also aren’t concerned about being cool.  Other friends and colleagues my age who haven’t come to this realization are usually in therapy or at the least, very unhappy. The…