It is tempting to think that, as the saying goes, those were the days. But were they? Wasn't there an even earlier time when one's reading knowledge of Latin and Greek was a certificate of being a cultured person? Weren't there some old geezers still alive in 1981 who whined about the devolution of society in which supposedly cultured people are incapable of spicing up a conversation with a well-timed quote from Homer or Virgil?
Perhaps when I think that "those were the days," what I really mean is that "those were my days," while the earlier and the later days are always someone else's days which are either hopelessly antiquated or depressingly primitive and vulgar...
5 comments:
Don't feel bad Dear Boom. I mentioned Bach to someone at work and.... he said "Who?". OK I'll give you Saint-Saens, Stravinsky and Messaien but Bach?! The times are a-changing..... While firemen may not be thought of as a patricularly cultured bunch I *assumed* a common cultural base existed between us as human beings but I see America's Got Talent and Fantasy Island has supplanted Bach. I am glad my dotage is near.
Speaking of clueless... I am listening to Franck's Prélude Choral and Fugue and can't tell if I am as sophisticated as I think I am or it's the wine....It certainly has affected me more than usual. Such beauty in this horrid world. So, old bean, despair not. There is hope.
I remember Bruce Mahler on "Fridays," the imitation of SNL. (Would that SNL hadn't utterly scorned classical music.) In one of his sketches, his DJ was named "Bruce Bruckner."
Bill,
Don't sell firefighters short!
As I recall, one of my favorite film actors - Steve Buscemi - was once a fireman with NYFD.
Brian Williams - the managing editor of NBC Nightly News - had also been a fireman early in his life.
And outside America there is the notable case of Sir Mike Penning who went from a job as a fireman to that as Minister of State for Justice in the British Government.
:)
Generally, for better or worse, things are never what they used to be. But there remains one constant – those who complain that they aren’t and whose lives are given purpose by an endless whingefest.
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