I'm ba-ack and we seem to have internet for now so I am making the most of it.
Had a brief escape from chilly Piopio to visit good friends in the warm sunshine of Dana Point and Pasadena, California. I wrote and posted blogs ahead of my departure for most of the time so you wouldn't miss my absence.
Trips to my homeland have turned out to be quite different each year, and this one was no exception. Even though I mostly do the same things and see the same people. Suspect this is because of me, and my gradual transition to Kiwi.
This year for the first time I felt more Kiwi than American--there were times when I felt I was channeling John.
Just to set the tone, here's a photo of the weekly property section from the Wall Street Journal (and p.s. I don't think it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek!):
While I shifted over to the right side without incident, I had a much harder time with language, the Kiwi words kept coming. I also found myself increasingly intolerant of aggressive up-selling efforts by retailers and restaurants. While it was nice to have a higher level of customer service, I was highly skeptical that most of it was genuine rather than a means to an end. One particularly bad experience involved a pedicure, where I ended paying almost twice the cost I'd signed up for after being exfoliated and moisturized (things normally part of a pedicure?), without being advised of any extra charge. And no, I didn't buy the products recommended.
New words, repurposed words, and/or trends spotted include the following:
Reboot: You've been hearing "cover" used for awhile for the remake of an old song by a new artist no doubt. Well "reboot" is the remake of a film.
Pivot: A change in strategy, used mostly in the context of a geopolitical shift.
Tartine: An open-faced sandwich.
Topknot/Man Bun/Quiff: Hairstyles du jour, mostly for men. A "Quiff" is a rather dramatic upturned wave at the crown, requiring a prodigious amount of hair product. Pompadours also seem to be making a comeback, although I didn't see Elvis.
Shishito Peppers: Grilled, fried or stuffed and breaded, a trendy appetizer. They're mostly mild but one in ten is often hotter.
"I can't even": According to the NYTimes this reflects a state of speechlessness too deep to express in any other words. While there's one view that this phrase indicates a speaker "so mindless they can't complete their verb phrases," the opposing view is that this is adolescent secret code intended to confuse adults, at least briefly.
Much the same approach here as the Kiwi phrase "sweet as," an expression that makes me shudder.
Self Identity: Gender and racial identity seem to be big popular culture issues in the US right now, particularly with the media. Of course there's Caitlyn, but also the now ex-NAACP woman who "self identifies" as black when she isn't racially so. This is the term used. It seems redundant to me, but guess it's meant to reinforce that whatever "self" believes should prevail over wider societal or biological classification.
Whatever? In the issue of "Vanity Fair" magazine on Caitlyn there was also an article on the movie "Clueless." It was interesting to find out about the number of expressions still quite common that came from this movie, including this one.
Hillary: She's adopted a pronounced southern drawl for the campaign that certainly wasn't noticeable when she was Secretary of State. It doesn't seem that I'm the only one who's noticed. Given the sheer number of Republican candidates lining up to battle against her, the race is meant to be less about issues, more about who is perceived to be the most "normal." And I guess the southern drawl ups the normal stakes.
Scruffy Beards: Yes, we've seen these on a few sports stars, but the trend is growing. Now skinny tech nerds seem to be walking around with Osama type beards, looking terrible.
Lastly, on the reading front, managed to finish two non-fiction books while away: "The Road to Character," by David Brooks, and "Wild," by Cheryl Strayer.
The former profiles a range of people throughout history who, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations/weaknesses, develop strong inner character. His main premise is the need to rebalance today's culture of self, something he calls "the Big Me," in favor of rich inner lives characterized by humility and moral depth. He doesn't get into whether or not this is realistically possible in today's world.
The latter is an autobiographical account of a woman traumatized by the death of her mother, who tramps the Pacific Coast Trail in an effort to transcend a life off the rails (unstable upbringing, adultery, divorce, heroin). "Wild" (has been made into a movie, look for it at a theater near you) seems to reinforce Brooks' belief that everyone needs to have a cause or purpose larger than self and "moral depth" for society to function well. I finished the book still dubious about the "heroine" (perhaps "protagonist" is a better word) and her choices (which include "Strayed" as her last name). Even after the sore feet and trail's end. But apparently it's got a lot more people hiking the Pacific Crest (this may or may not be a good thing).
I've almost finished a third book entitled "Capital Dames," by NPR journalist Cokie Roberts, about leading women in Washington, D.C. before, during and after the Civil War. Most were married to politicians on either sides of the conflict, although a few were social activists. It's an interesting chronicle of challenging times with lots of historical factoids.
And so I've returned home to Struan Farm, happy to be here and thinking that life is much more complicated in the US these days. Also that I'm more and more Kiwi, even though I know I will never "self identify" 100%.
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