Monday, January 12, 2009

Does Anyone Use The Term "Fuddy-Duddy" Anymore??

I'm not hip, cool, chic, new, trendy, all that, radical, pimp or the shit. I am, in fact, an old fuddy-duddy, defined in the Urban Dictionary as: "An old, boring, no humor, crabby, no imagination, anal-retentive person." Yep, that apparently would be me.

While everyone ~ and when I say everyone, I mean everyone younger than me ~ is praising, applauding and high-fiving Tina Fey this morning, I am sitting here shaking my head and wondering when I lost it. Where did I put my sense of humor? I can't seem to find it.

For lack of anything else, last night we watched part of the Golden Globe Awards on television. We had gone to bed early, which has become a bit of a ritual since we bought our warming mattress pad; we turn it up to 4 and climb into a toasty, warm bed on a cold night (so much better than sitting upright on a cold leather chair in the den). I turned on the television and after repeatedly scanning through the 300+ channels available to us on Directv, we settled on the Golden Globes.

It seemed like their were more presenters than winners, but I suppose one cannot allow all that fancy dress money go to waste. One HAS to appear in front of the camera at least once. So, anyway...we didn't watch it from the beginning, so we were fortunate enough to miss JLo, the most overrated entertainer of 2005, 2006, 2007 AND 2008 (sorry, if that insults you). We tuned in somewhere after the middle, but fairly close to the end, I think. Okay, I'm not making any sense, so I will move on to my point.

Tina Fey. You cannot be alive, own a television and not at least have heard her name. She is formerly a Saturday Night Live cast member and currently the star and writer of 30 Rock. In the spirit of full disclosure, you are entitled to know that I think I have watched SNL maybe 4 times since it debuted in 1975. I didn't see Tina Fey on SNL until she returned to play Sarah Palin during the election last year. As for 30 Rock, I think it is well into it's fourth season and I've probably seen 2 full shows and parts of others. Okay, okay.. I'm getting to my point...soon.

When I read my daily papers this morning, I was more than a little puzzled, although not surprised, by the accolades for Tina Fey's acceptance speech for best actress in a comedy series. I will not quote her speech here, but if you have not seen it and would like to you can do that here. "Hilarious," they said. "The Comic Genius of Tina Fey," read another headline. Me? Only one word comes to mind: Rude.

Rude is defined as ill-mannered; lacking in refinement or grace; lacking civility and good manners; crude. Her speech was all of that. I was not only astounded by the manner in which Tina Fey chose to attack the critics who don't think she is particularly funny or talented, I am completely dismayed by the accolades she is receiving for doing so.

I'm an old fogey. I admit it. I don't get a lot of things, but mostly I don't get stuff like that. I miss heart-felt thank you's, acknowledgment of appreciation, expressions of gratitude, humility. It's been replaced with arrogance, pompousness, pretension and self-importance. What happened to us? Are we so disconnected, isolated and anonymous that we believe that our behavior, our words no longer matter?

I remember a quote that I read or heard somewhere that provides a most descriptive analysis: "Our world has lost its finesse."

I think that is accurate. I just wonder how we get it back.

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