Is it Hip to be Square? As we age, we find this to be true.
We’re not exactly the bourgeois bohemians to whom Huey Lewis and the News were alluding in their “Hip to be Square” anthem. However, we pride ourselves on being square yet in the know or hip up to a point.
We’re good researchers and reporters who read a lot. We loved subscribing to People magazine years ago, so we could keep up on the latest celeb gossip and palace intrigue, then about the threesome: Prince Charles, Princess Diana and Camilla.
Through the years as we aged, our interest in celeb-oriented publications waned. We’d pick up a copy of People at the dentist and were clueless. Who were these young bucks? We didn’t recognize most mentioned. Even terms alluded us. We dialed down other subscriptions and knew even fewer.
We stopped frequenting department and specialty shops to spot fashion trends when the pandemic hit. We didn’t go to concerts/opera or sporting events for the same reason and rarely watched any on TV, except for tennis which Barbara liked and opera which Margaret loves.
We ate out less, in part because of the pandemic. At the same time, more restaurants prepared foods we had never heard of. We tired of asking, “What’s that?” or Googling every ingredient. Why was cauliflower suddenly a star and in so many forms, sometimes disguised as pizza crust? We craved familiar standbys such as a good bowl of onion soup, roasted chicken, a fresh tuna burger with crispy fries, pizza made with a flour-based dough and for dessert a big wedge of chocolate cake without vegan frosting.
Yes, we are square. But are we hip?
Ask us about coronavirus variants, the best masks, how to avoid the country’s hot spots to steer clear of catching Covid-19, and we’re experts. Being in the old age category and highly susceptible to getting sick or worse a long-hauler problem, we’ve stayed on our toes and in the know.
To be cool and stay abreast of what’s trendy, we decided to do some research to get back up to speed. Here’s what we’ve learned, with help from our kids, a niece and the Internet. Now at least we can pretend to “get it” when we rejoin society and cocktail conversations. We can banter about some of these names and trends. The only problem is, like technology, by the time you read these, and we use the terms or drop the names in daily parlance, they’ll probably be obsolete.
Hollywood stars
Benedict Cumberbatch
Lana Condor
Letitia Wright
Simone Ashley
Ronny Chieng
Magazines
Kinfolk
Wired
Bone-shaker
Cherry Bombe
Milk Street
Inventory
Wilder Quarterly
TV series
Succession
The Witcher
Squid Game
Virgin River
Manifest
Catastrophe
Food trends
Plant-based burgers
Pantry meals
Flexitarian eating
Low-waste foods
Carb alternatives
Piri Piri sauce
Cocktails
French 75
Mudslide
Aviation
Painkiller
Hot female athletes
Jacqueline Carvalho
Muni He
Emmi Peltonen
Monica Puig
Eugenie Bouchard
Clothing trends
Hoodies under blazers
Color clashing
Cropped cardigans
Boiler suits
Statement sleeves
Sustainable fashion
Authors of best debut novels
Claire-Louise Bennett, Checkout 19
Natasha Brown, Assembly
Keith Ridgway, A Shock
Leone Ross, This One Sky Day
Isabel Waidner, Sterling Karat
Rebecca Watson, little scratch
Laura Rooney, Normal People
Artists or art collectives
Jakob Kudsk Steensen
Keiken
Rosa Menkman
Reza Hasni
Michael Benisty
Architecture and design styles
Passive homes
Maximalism, Japandi and Cottagecore styles
Open plans that aren’t totally open
Decreased carbon footprints
Demographic driven design
Any version of the color green that suggests nature
Music
Nilufer Yana
Soul Glo
Earl Sweatshirt
Mitski
Jlin
Jake Xerses Fussell
Politicians
There aren’t any since Patrick Leahy retired, that was easy
Psychological addictions
Hypersexual disorder
Cannabis withdrawal
Hoarding disorder
Narcissism, which everybody knows about unless you’ve lived under a rock
Overused terms during COVID-19
Pivot
Flattening the curve
Immunocompromised
Presumptive positive case
Zoonotic
Zoomed
If you’re hip, share your list.
Marilyn
I realized a number of years ago that I was not hip. New music, new styles of clothing,, new words new methods had all passed me.
By. The best part of that was I didn’t care. I am not cool, but I do care deeply about people. , feelings and giving back . hip hip hooray!
Lynn Lyss
Flexitarian eating???😫
I’m totally clueless!!
Audrey
Lots of fun although I only know two to three terms or people on the list. Best part of getting to this age is that I don’t have to and don’t care about being “in the know” or hip. Old ways of doing things and thinking still work and the Beatles are still great!
Mary Lou
Great blog! You are definitely hip…I on the other hand didn’t know half the names you referenced!….but fun to read.