I AM SHOCKED, SHOCKED!

Slate's Jack Shafer goes in search of the telltale sign that the Boomers have surrendered control of the media to the post-boomers. He gets some good answers from his under-40 acquaintances, but I didn't know he'd get one this good:

Josh Levin crosses the decency line by calling my attention to the "shocker," the hand gesture young people use in the presence of their elders to 1) disrespect them and 2) show how clueless the old fogies (read: boomers) are. When the shocker appears in a New York Times headline, we'll know the boomers have been vanquished.

I too cross the lines of decency just to point out that I once did my small part in promoting the shocker's rise to semi-prominence, in the XIl-XIII edition of the OC, perhaps not so coincidentally my last as chief editor:


I know whose hand that is, and for his own occupational security, I'll decline to mention him by name. But the guy in the garbage can, there's no use pretending that's not Pete Hunt.

P.S. — Are you surprised there's an entry for the shocker at Wikipedia? Me neither.

---

posted by WWB at 7:55 PM |