Posted On: Tuesday - January 22nd 2019 12:01PM MST
In Topics: Humor Curmudgeonry
Do you remember that old TV show, Hill Street Blues, from the early/mid 1980's? During their morning briefing this cop Sargent (or whatever) would tell the beat tops that, before they went out into the hoods. I guess he could have said "follow the Constitution out there!" in old 1950's America, and it may have worked as a tag line. No, I guess in the hood in 1985, there would have been no point to that.
Speaking of points, the point of this post is a new all-too-common goodbye phrase that's been bugging the Peak Stupidity staff as of late. No, we don't do briefings in the morning ("Guys, go out there and find you some stupid!" would be superfluous, wouldn't it?) here at the blog-house. This phrase is now being heard by all of us, at least in this country. First, it was just an add-on: "See ya later; be safe." Then, I've heard it as a complete substitute for "goodbye". What is this crap?
In the early 1970's, as a last vestige of the hippy era, there were these yellow smiley-faced button, stickers and what have you. It was big, man, as big as CB radio became about 5 years later. Around that time, to go along with the buttons, and starting in California of course, people began to say a cheerful "Have a nice day!" to each other. Well, it was cheerful at least if it wasn't specific corporate policy. That was a little annoying, but ya got used to it. It was fairly reasonable, right, I mean, we all want to have a nice day.
Still, maybe "have a nice day" was a harbinger of the decline of America, as having a nice day neither does much to stop the Commies, Globalists, and ctrl-left from taking over, as they have, nor does it necessarily help us have a productive life. Perhaps "See ya, beat the crap out of a lefty out there." or "See ya, get something done!" would have been better. Now, this "Be Safe" thing is just too much. In many ways, the immediate world in front of us is safer than it's ever been, thanks to a lot of engineers who didn't always have a nice day, but were productive (and maybe beat up some Commies during lunch). Being safe may be what women aspire to, versus more risk-taking men, so this could be another indicator of the matriarchy we live under.
Your wife or girlfriend may say "be careful" or "drive safe" every time you leave home. I know she means well, but I think this is a superstition more than anything. Imagine if she neglected to say "be careful" one morning and your car stalled on the railroad tracks and you got plowed into by a 50-car unit train. Yeah, that wouldn't have happened if she'd said "be careful" would it have, and (oh yeah) you actually listened? Right! 30 seconds after hearing "drive carefully" and you're on the road, and this asshole cuts you off, you may decide to pass him and return the favor. Did that "drive carefully" make a difference? No, but the thing is, that guy was an asshole!
OK, what brought this out was my taking a short cut on a walk the other day to avoid the main busy/loud road. As I cut through a car wash parking lot, one of the guys told me that I was too close to the operation and might get hurt. "For your safety, you need to walk around the front." I was 20 ft from any entrance, so his admonishment was just ludicrous. Well, I do respect property rights, even though it sure wasn't his place, so I didn't argue and went around the long way. (It was probably a liability thing, I imagine.) "OK, I'll head around the front. Sorry." "You're fine. Be safe." "What the hell? Oh, see you later."
I gotta admit, it was still more friendly than NY City where, I believe, "get the fuck outta here." is still in vogue, or is that just between friends. I've probably taken it the wrong way ...
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