Everywhere I go, I'm the baby of the group

[brigdh]

My advisor: So, when I said that thing in the undergrad class earlier, it was obvious that I wasn't talking about Bush, right? I didn't want to sound political.
Her other student: Yeah. It was a reference to Purcell Carville*, I got it.
My advisor: You're sure? I'm just not certain if the freshmen remember the first Clinton campaign.
Me: ...you guys, I don't remember the first Clinton campaign.
My advisor: No, you must.
Me: That was '92? I was eight.
My advisor: ...oh.

Seriously, at some point in my life, I'm going to manage to spend time with people my own age. Though it is occasionally really funny to horrify people by pointing out how much younger I am than them.

And now I'm going to pay attention to some current politics, though I doubt it will particularly be a memory I'll cherish.


I think that's the name they said; I didn't recognize it. I may have had no idea who they were talking about, but other people got the reference.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hrrrr. I do remember the first Clinton campaign and I'm like "who?wha?" What was the context?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

He was the economic manager or advisor or something? The name might have started with a C instead of P. I walked in when they were already talking, so I missed the beginning of the conversation.

[rm.livejournal.com]

You mean James Carville?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sounds right!

[rm.livejournal.com]

"It's the economy, stupid"?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh! That's a quote? I thought they were just calling the freshmen stupid.

Man, now I feel pretty dumb.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It was the guiding principle of the first CLinton campaign. Don't engage moral issues, don't engage idea issues, don't engage that whole "Democrats are soft on defense thing" just talk by them and focus on the economy as it effects the average man.

Caarville was on TV all teh time (the highest profile campaign manager in ages) screaming in his southern accent "It's the economy, stupid!" and it was the slogal all over all teh campaign headquarters. It's one of the major focuses of the documentary on that campaign.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

This all makes so much more sense now. Though I still don't remember any of it, I suddenly understand what they were talking about.

[weirdquark]

I don't remember the quote from the campaign (I was thirteen in '92, so what did I know about the economy?) but I've heard the quote since when people talk about elections. (But then I try to hang out on political forums, so I know what's happening in the world.)

[invicti-solis.livejournal.com]

Everywhere I go, I'm the baby of the group

Oh, geeze, I know what you mean...boy do I know...

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Heh. Happens to you too, huh?

[invicti-solis.livejournal.com]

Yes. The majority of my close friends are at least two decades older than me.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Join the club. XD

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee. Good to know I'm not the only one this is always happening to.

[drmoonpants.livejournal.com]

HA HA yeah, that game is always fun. I am reminded of when I was meeting with my second reader about my dissertation topic:

#2: So why exactly /do/ you want to do a historical approach to the 1980s?
Me: Well, you know, I really believe strongly that every moment is a historical moment, and the more we historicize the recent past and make an effort to place the present in the proper historical context, the less isolated and out of the blue the current events we're facing seem and the more we can see the patterns of belief and ideas underlying what's said in popular culture at any given time. ...also, you know, I'm 25, so to me, the 80s /are/ history! :D
#2: OOF
Me:</STRONG S...sorry. ^___^;

[drmoonpants.livejournal.com]

and then I boned my HTML tags but whatever ._.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yep, that's how it goes.

Seriously, it's time for LJ to figure out how to edit comments. Get on the ball and quit offering text messaging posting or whatever they're wasting their time on instead.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

... actually, the reason for the non editing of comments isn't that they can't do it, but that they decided it's too much of an ethical quagmire. You used to be able to do it, in fact. Somewhere in the FAQs is their demonstration of why they don't allow it, phrased along these lines:

Commenter #1: Wow, you're really smart!
Commenter #2: Yes, yes I am. :D
Commenter #1: *edits comment to read* Wow, you're a great big horse-fucker, aren't you?

*flames and libel accusations ensue*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! I hadn't thought of that. I just assumed that they didn't allow edits because of how comments get emailed- it's sort of pointless to try to fix your mistakes, if someone already has an email with the original version.

But dude, it must have been ages since they allowed editing. I had a livejournal in early 2002, and I don't remember ever being able to do it.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

Well, I _think_ they did. I had my first livejournal in 2001 (got deleted after major angst, never resurrected, started this one instead in '02) and I think I remember being able to edit comments... I might be misrecalling, though. That was way way back in the Dark Ages, after all. :D

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It is also totally possible that it was, in fact, possible to edit comments in '02, and I've just since forgotten. *laughs* My memory is terrible.

[ferrouswheel.livejournal.com]

I like when the converse happens - where someone is like "Oh you'd be too young to know about that", and I'm like "I do actually know about that."

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

True! I'm usually pretty good about recognizing historical references, even if I wasn't aware of the event at the time, but man, the only thing I remember about the '92 political campaign is some guy named Ross Perot.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I'm still getting it. And I was 17 in '92.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I should be glad that I'll get to continue to be amused by it, or horrified that it never ends.

[weirdquark]

And now I'm going to pay attention to some current politics, though I doubt it will particularly be a memory I'll cherish.

Ain't that the truth. My mother, who has always been a political junkie, has stopped watching the news because she finds it too depressing. And this is a woman who had the news on ALL THE TIME.

I've been listening to NPR podcasts of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, which is a weekly current events quiz show with snarky panelists. They bring the funny to what's going on. This is something I need to be able to take the news.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I get most of my news from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, so I certainly understand the need to get your news with snark.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

*laaaaaaaughs*

I've always tended to hang out with people older than me. What's really weird is that since I started at Oxford, due to a combination of my year-out messing around stuff and the length of the course, I keep being much _older_ than other people. I meet ickle firstie 18-year-olds and realise they are the same age as my youngest sister... -_-

Which is why I hang around with the grad students and not-actually-students and the members of the RPGsoc. :D (I got an honourary membership to the Graduate Lesbians group by dint of being older than several of them. ^_^;;)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee! But it must be just as fun to freak people out by being much older than them as the reverse.

[redshoeson.livejournal.com]

*diez*

^^

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*grins*