Chokes, then shouts: band name!

Glad you reposted this one. And not just because somehow I had forgotten the above, which I believe has choked me before.

Do any of you Gen-Xers remember this little slice of 80s cheese?

There’s a lot of 80s fashion around at the moment, but I’ve also seen a lot more nostalgia about the fact that there was a “real difference” between political parties back then, and a weird tendency to think fondly of Margaret Thatcher because “at least she believed in something”, even from those who hated her when she was in power (I’m a Brit, in case you hadn’t guessed!).

I wish I could find the news article I read about the nostalgia gap – I’ve been doing some googling and it isn’t showing up (difficult search terms to refine down), but I’m sure I remember reading it!

Though, the “golden era” is rapidly becoming the 80s, as people born in those years (myself included) get older and start going on about how good it was and how the toys were better and the cartoons were better and the clothes and MTV and video games and and and!!

What’s interesting about the “30 years” thing is that it’s a length of time such that people in their late 30s-early 50s (which seems to be the age group with the most power at any given time) will remember the fun stuff from that decade but probably won’t remember as much of the turmoil and political bullshit and so on (because they would have been elementary age-college age at the time). So when I reminisce about the 90s I’m thinking of, say, Salute Your Shorts and Bubble Tape, and forgetting, say, Desert Storm. When my mom reminisces about the 70s she’s thinking of her high school boyfriends and her Peter Frampton records, not Vietnam or Watergate* or the gas crisis or other things which, at the time, signalled the DOWNFALL OF SOCIETY OMFG. (And which someone 10 years older than her would remember more clearly.)

*And now I totally have “Bicycle Race” stuck in my head.

The 30 year perspective thing is also quite interesting. I never thought about it being in 30 year increments but I definitely see lots of examples in daily life – including comments on blogs – of people that are reminiscing fondly about the “good old days” when the reality is they were not any better. These people would have us be ignorant and think that was better than being informed.

I am sorry for his issues, but I think it’s crazy that he doesn’t have the self-awareness to understand that he’s not someone who can write objectively or compassionately about other people’s body concerns, considering his deep, deep neuroses in this area.

Jared has probably been able to keep the weight off because being “Subway Jared” has become a pretty big deal psychologically to him. (In other words, he just keeps starving himself.)

Also, it’s his job, and as part of his job being a professional thinnish guy he exercises for 2+ hours each day, often with a personal trainer.

I certainly hope nobody here has had the misfortune of having the example of Subway Jared thrown in their face. I read about Jared’s diet, and it is pretty clear that he starved himself. His breakfast on his crash diet was coffee (in other words, a skipped meal), a six-inch turkey sub from Subway with no mayo or oil for lunch (not a lot of food at all, especially for somebody who has skipped breakfast), and a one-foot Subway veggie-sub (again no mayo or oil) for dinner. If that’s not a crash diet, then what, pray tell, is a crash diet?

Jared has probably been able to keep the weight off because being “Subway Jared” has become a pretty big deal psychologically to him. (In other words, he just keeps starving himself.)