Missed another day, did too much yesterday.

I've had a response to my request for examples of folklore lost to us for easy reference. One friend cited an expression she has used that no one seems to recognize any more. "Shit brindle brown" I use it, too, without brown. Self-explanatory. But it's not folklore, not like Aesop's Fables or Hollywood movies; it's just fallen out of use.

As for that, it would be wise for us elders to stop using expressions that date us. My first lesson in this came from a friend when we were at college. She said that in order to sound younger than you are, you have to forget the names of erstwhile stars. Her example was "Who's Warner Baxter?" Today, I guess you have to ask "Who's Cary Grant?" Is he still a legend, and alive because of old movies? BTW, my favourite is Notorious. Did you know that Hitchcock got around the Hayes Office ruling limiting the length of a kiss on screen (to 14 seconds) by having Ingrid Bergman and Grant in an embrace while he's on the phone? They embrace while he listens to his caller but the embracing and nuzzling go on between 14-second kisses. It's very hot.

Who's Rock Hudson?

But I digress.

The same vigilance about dating yourself must continue with your customary expressions, often taken from current commercials. What happens if the commercial is no longer current? No one knows what you're talking about, you old fuddy-duddy (related to another old expression with historic significance). I used to cite a former Certs ad when I met someone I hadn't seen for a few years. You know how you try to match your memory of someone from your past with the person in front of you now. As you reconcile the two images you say,"You haven't changed a bit!" Well, she has, but remember - you probably don't remember - the Certs commercial that says: "It's two, two, two Certs in one." I don't say that any more because no one knows what I'm talking about.

Marshall MCluhan once said, "The price of eternal vigilance is indifference." I disagree, and I actually had the opportunity to tell him so (that's another story). Because the price of eternal vigilance is eternal vigilance. You can't ever let up.

"Don't give a inch." Was that Ken Kesey?

Who?

Yesterday it was official, in caps - International Women's Day - and I celebrated with a friend and her daughter (of whom more anon). But I discovered, no, I knew before this, that I cannot do three things a day and blog too. Blog was number four yesterday and there weren't any hours, energy or rational thought left.

Maybe today. Did you have a good day yesterday? * * * *

Near the end of the day now, and I've been doing too much, finally working again and encountering commuter glitches. (Actually, the glitches are in me, not in my computer.)

Anyway, about my friend's daughter: she's 20 now, in university, studying physics and political science. Wow. Also awesome. She knows lots of things I don't know and never will. I'm literate and she's numerate. Most literate people are innumerate. I'm not quite because I do know about the Second Law of Thermodynamics. But most numerate people are not very literate.

That's a fact. It led me to consider again a thought that I've run by you before, and that is how people today, literate or not, lack a common base of reference. A few centuries ago one could count on a shared knowledge of one's religion. Now? A young woman (a different one) was visiting me and noticed a book I had been given - Pilate's Wife. Oh, she wondered if it offered a new angle on the exercise. She had never heard of Pontius Pilate, the husband. See what I mean?

On the other hand, you could say that Piilates has a fairly broad reference point. "Pilates (/pɪˈlɑːtɪz/;[1] German: is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates, after whom it was named. Pilates called his method "Contrology". It is practiced worldwide, and especially in western countries such as Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. As of 2005, there were 11 million people practicing the discipline regularly." Wikipedia.

How about Greek mythology or Aesop's Fables? Who? I asked my friend's daughter if she'd ever heard of Aesop. No. Do people ever cry wolf now? Do they know the consequences? What about denigrating something one can't afford or that is out of reach. Sour grapes? And ever since the United States elected a new president, I have been thinking of The Frog Who Wanted a King, and look what that got those poor amphibians.

More recently, we had the movies supplying our common knowledge: green velvet curtains made into a dress; "Play it,Sam" (not again, as is commonly thought); an angel getting its wings when a bell tinkles; "King of the World!" But even those are a little dated because there is no longer a common source. People get their folklore from so many different devices now (TV, Netflix, and all kinds of streams), that common familiarity is rare.

Think about it. Give me some more examples.