{"id":637,"date":"2010-07-02T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T16:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/blog\/?p=637"},"modified":"2010-07-02T11:13:09","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T16:13:09","slug":"the-basic-problem-with-middle-aged-politicans-selling-the-cool-city-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=637","title":{"rendered":"The Basic Problem with Middle-Aged Politicans Selling the “Cool” City Concept…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Editorial<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally published in the Grand Rapids Press<\/em>, June 26, 2010<\/p>\n

When I was 8 or so, there was a family that moved into our neighborhood. They had a boy my age (I don\u2019t remember his name), but his parents were much younger than mine. To broadly categorize his parents, I would say they were hippies. But that term brings with it some negative connotations, most of which I don\u2019t think apply: I never witnessed them taking drugs or singing their virtues, they did not — to the best of recollection — add the word \u201cman\u201d to the end of every sentence, and they never publically wrestled naked in a mud puddle while listening to Hendrix. (I have a keen memory for \u201cnaked.\u201d) Conversely, positive connotations don\u2019t necessarily apply either: I don\u2019t remember them being particularly open-minded, friendly, or willing to share their money.
\n\u00a0
\nNo, they were more Sonny & Cher. Or more precisely, early 1970s Sonny & Cher: popular, hip, now, with clothing that had fringy material. They were, for the times, very cool parents. I cannot give specific evidence that this made them bad parents. They did have a \u201cmusic\u201d room that we were forbidden to enter. (It had shades, black-lights, a massive stereo, and lots and lots of velvet.) Ten points taken for that. But they also bought their kid a Mattel Vertibird <\/a>and let us play with it on their kitchen counter. Ten points back for that.<\/p>\n

Actually, my only problem with them was that they seemed so decidedly un-parental. That \u201ccoolness\u201d thing (and maybe they were actually cool, I don\u2019t know) just didn\u2019t play for me. And it didn\u2019t seem to play for their boy, either. Kids are perceptive like that — they pick up on these things. I decided then that I never wanted to be a cool parent. Nice, approachable, vaguely interesting: yes. Cutting edge of fashion, a friend first, stylish: definitely not.<\/p>\n

This, then, was the feeling I tapped into for this week\u2019s cartoon — the squeamishness of adults beyond a certain age trying to be and know cool. (So 10 points to me for knowing enough to look to my daughter\u2019s iTunes library for a band to put on the young person\u2019s shirt. And 10 points away for any sort of implication that Tegan & Sara <\/a>are who I listen to in my velvet music room.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in the Grand Rapids Press, June 26, 2010 When I was 8 or so, there was a family that moved into our neighborhood. They had a boy my age (I don\u2019t remember his name), but his parents were much younger than mine. To broadly categorize his parents, I would say they were hippies. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-rapids-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}