Crabby’s Last Stand for 2006

[A new story, Ruth Rendell and Me - Getting Older, has been posted this morning at Blogher.]

We can’t let 2006 end without Crabby Old Lady getting in one last lick for the year.

She was preparing dinner one evening last week, listening with one ear to the news on CNN, when a story about Queen Elizabeth II of England turned up. Each year, the queen records a Christmas message to the Commonwealth, a speech that has in the past been broadcast on television. What makes it news this year is that it is also available on the internet as a podcast.

How cool, thought Crabby. The queen, that stodgy remnant of an earlier era in history when royals ruled by fiat, is catching up to the 21st century. Even better, given Crabby’s association with a blog about aging, the queen’s message this year is about listening to your elders.

Then the CNN reporter, Carol Costello, finished up her report with this comment: “Not the most hip message, ‘listen to your elders.’”

Crabby nearly cut her finger with the vegetable knife.

Did Ms. Costello need to say that? If it had been Bono who made that Christmas message or Angelina Jolie or Barack Obama, would Ms. Costello have trashed them for being unhip? Crabby doesn’t think so.

When an 80-year-old woman of a position and class not known for being au courant records a podcast, Crabby thinks she’s hip and cool whatever the message which, by the way, might be a beneficial reminder for a couple of children Crabby knows.

It was another moment of thoughtless ageism, and speaking of old-fashioned messages: Crabby Old Lady hopes Santa left Ms. Costello nothing more than coal in her Christmas stocking this year.

Comments

[Claude]

Well said, Crabby! Hip!!!! The Queen! I'm asking you!

[Dee]

Hear, Hear, Crabby!!!That tale is one of the reasons I avoid 24/7 TV news....Dee

[Rain]

Amazing. Well I think hip and cool are wayoverrated virtues in our current culture; and if little bush had listened to big bush and gotten some elder wisdom instead of think he talked to god when he talked to cheney (his contemporary), we might not be in the current mess we are in with Iraq.

[sereneambition]

I missed the Queen's message but wonder if she was 'offering' the wisdom of age in a context of choice -- i.e. take it or leave it -- or was she 'proclaiming' that elders have an entitlement and should be heard simply because they are old (which is also a agist statement). Did the Queen say why we should listen? I think the young should listen, but not because we know the answers to questions we can barely relate to, but because they too will be aging INTO the same culture that defines what it means to be old and what is possible and not possibile. Together (the young and the old) can transform that culture and bring forth a world in which who you are is more important than how old you are.

[ML]

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz(sp.?) made a similar gaff at the end of the recent movie about crossword puzzling - I think called "Wordplay." In the final scene, Shortz gazes at the hotel conference room where they hold the annual National Crossword Championships, and says something like "I love what I do and expect to do it well into my nineties, when I'll probably have to be wheeled in here in a wheelchair and drooling." He gave a big smile, obviously thinking this funny. To me, it dampened an otherwise wonderful movie.

[joared]

Glad Grumpy Old Lady caught Ms. Costello on this one, and ML mentioned the one she noted.

These kind of "cutesy" comments from broadcasters simply demonstrate how pervasive in our language these unthinking mindless ageist remarks about elders are.

GOL, seems to me I recall your friend, Ronni, writing about how ageist language has evolved to the point where everyone just accepts it as a given -- or did you write that?

Certainly as "elder" has been discussed at TGB, and as it is understood by many others, we know wisdom, age are factors in the meaningful use of the word. We know "elder" is not necessarily limited to an age criteria, any more than any age automatically depicts wisdom.

[Terri]

I fail to understand why "hip" can't be synonymous with "elder." I think that reporter lives in a tunnel. Because I've seen plenty of elders that I'd also call quite hip.
And although I don't agree with all that elders say....I still feel their experience and wisdom are priceless.
Here's wishing you a very Happy New Year, Ronni.....all the best to you in '07.

[lilalia]

Very good point. But, do you actually think that the Queen knows what a podcast is?

[Xtreme English]

Crabby, while you're at it, d'ya think it would be fun to write a post on the various kinds of crappy stuff people think, whether it's stupid attitudes about old people or about women or about whatever? Somebody was telling me today about a family she knew when she was growing up. Both the mother and the father were doctors at a famous medical center, but she said "You would have thought the mother was a whore, the way all the other mothers talked about her--'She's never home and the kids run wild! She doesn't shave her legs!'--and none of the other mothers ever called her Doctor Soandso..it was always Mrs. Soandso."

[Marian Van Eyk McCain]

Sounds to me as though this Costello person, whoever she is (I live in England and rarely listen to radio anyway) needs to have a hip replacement.

[Judy]

I appreciate Will Shortz's comment. He involved only himself and has no illusions about the posibility.

[Paul]

Ms Costello is ageing as we speak ! :)

[Kay Dennison]

AMEN!!!!! AMEN!!!!! "Hip" has mostly been a case of no apparent interest in my mind but I resent these young whippersnappers making untoward remarks. I don't mind being an elder but I do wish these people would remember what my mother always said (& has been known still remind me now & then): "Respect your elders."

[Junebugg]

Well put! It reminds me of what my sister said at the recent passing of both our parents. She turned to me and stated:
"The scary thing is that now we're the older generation that everyone expects to have all the answers!"

[Tabor]

The other commenters you suggested were all younger and so their advice might not seem so self-serving. All of us oldsters want people to listen to us.

[Cowtown Pattie]

To give Costello some wiggle, "Listen to your elders" might have been worded a little more "hip-er" I suppose. Maybe it came across as a sort of "eat your spinach" mantra? (I didn't hear the speech.)

The Queen might have been clever and said: "Elders hold the secret!" and left it as a mysterious clue...

[MC]

Me thinks Mizz Costello missed the point: the medium was NOT the message. The Queen's advice to her audience was sound, whether delivered by paper or iPod: listen to your elders (read that: betters)!

And go easy on Will. Whether walking or wheeling, he'll always see himself as the puzzle master. What better way to meet the 90's, than living out his passion? ;)