Everything I watched in my formative years is pretty obscure, except for probably Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. I mean, who else here remembers 3-2-1 Contact?
3-2-1 Contact was the default "educational" show, but the cool kids knew Square One was where it was at. ;^)
Maybe it went off the air here earlier than where you guys were (we got Square One too where I grew up -- and I watched it myself). Of course, the last couple of seasons of 3-2-1 Contact were vastly different than the first few seasons and that may also be coloring my memory. They went from the framing story of "kids in a study house/basement/whatever" to no framing story at all and just a bunch of kids visiting scientists and such all over the world.
A formerly really obscure one that I watched was The Electric Company (hey, it was one of Morgan Freeman's first acting gigs and even had bits starring Spiderman -- I mean, the actual Spiderman character and not just some knockoff/parody). However, I think they recently started a reboot of it.
All stuff I'll probably be getting familiar with again over the next few years now that I'm, oh, about 5-8 weeks from becoming a dad.
Zoom was the shit, y'all. Also: Ghostwriter, 3-2-1 Contact, and Square One aren't terribly obscure. Not for public television shows, anyway.
EDIT: Lou, c'mon. Everyone and their mother knows The Electric Company. Family Guy made a joke about it.
Okay, maybe I'm just getting old here and somehow associating "old" with "obscure." I mean, The [original] Electric Company has been off the air since 1985 or so.
BTW, from the same era in my life, the best anti-smoking PSA ever:
Just read the short book/suicide note of Clayton Schwartz, about his life as a paraplegic. Really puts you in a mood. Probably not the best idea since I just started taking antidepressants again, and have to wake up for classes in 3 1/2 hours, but couldn't resist. Really hits you in the feels. Trying to go online and do stuff to lighten the mood and get myself out of "story" mode and back into feeling totally normal. But yeah. Jesus fuck. That's enough of that kind of reading/thinking to last me a long, long time
On the flip side, I can't wait to get up for school so I can eat some leftover pizza for breakfast. Goddamn, I love leftovers for breakfast.
Does this mean aboriginals are an endangered species?
Indigenous Australians, sir. And unfortunately, maybe.
Only if you want to be formal. "Aboriginal" and "aboriginals" are acceptable enough colloquial versions. Like, you wouldn't put it in an official document, but it's acceptable to say "Ah, see that aboriginal dude sitting over there?"
Less acceptable, but hardly the worst. Acceptable for casual conversation, as long as you're aware of the company you're in when using it, and the context.
Does this mean aboriginals are an endangered species?
Indigenous Australians, sir. And unfortunately, maybe.
Only if you want to be formal. "Aboriginal" and "aboriginals" are acceptable enough colloquial versions. Like, you wouldn't put it in an official document, but it's acceptable to say "Ah, see that aboriginal dude sitting over there?"
So, kinda like the difference between "blacks" and "African Americans" then?
So, kinda like the difference between "blacks" and "African Americans" then?
Sort of, but less of a wide gulf. They're essentially interchangeable, but one is slightly more acceptable in polite company by virtue of being the correct sociological term.
Woo, welcome to the euphemism treadmill! It's particularly confusing for race, seeing as it's all social constructed and the definitions shift with time. I just try to avoid saying anything at all until somebody else brings it up...
Woo, welcome to the euphemism treadmill! It's particularly confusing for race, seeing as it's all social constructed and the definitions shift with time. I just try to avoid saying anything at all until somebody else brings it...
It's pretty easy for this instance. It's basically a yes/no question for it. There is no flexibility in this definition.
So, kinda like the difference between "blacks" and "African Americans" then?
Except there are black people who will get pissed if you call them African American because they're from Tobago or something similar.
Don't forget Rym's Egyptian IBM co-worker who called himself African American.
Didn't say it was the "correct" appellation for black people. It's just that it's the one considered, rightly or wrongly, "politically correct" in the United States and it's probably the one applicable to the largest percentage of the black population. I suppose "Sub-Saharan African American" would be the most precise from a geographical standpoint, but then again we'd still be annoying Jamaicans and Tobagoans and whatnot. It's also a bit of a mouthful. If it wasn't for that problem, it probably wouldn't be too bad a term as it would have some parallels with Irish-American, Italian-American, and so on as it's tied more to a geographical location than to a physical trait, even if said trait was common in people from that geographical location.
I mean, at one point "negro" and "colored" were still considered acceptable in both informal and formal usage and remain in the names of various organizations such as the United Negro College Fund and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but nowadays, except for those aforementioned organizations, usage of them is considered old fashioned at best (if spoken by an older individual) and pretty offensive at worst, although they at least are somewhat generic. Even in other cases, it's sometimes not all that great. I've spoken to some Native Americans who don't like the term "Native American," because they feel it's valid for anyone born on American soil, even those of European ancestry. I kind of like the Canadian term, First Nations People, best in this case, although Indigenous Americans may not be bad either to parallel with Australia.
Also, race is slightly more than just a social construct, as there are certainly cases of generic illnesses and such that can be linked to race (i.e. sickle cell, Tay Sachs, and so on, depending on the background), although if the social construct were broken down and more interracial marriages were to take place, these genetic illnesses would probably be diluted across the entire human population or even vanish.
I was surprised to see signs for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City with the Negro left in. I've no problem with it, as it's a historical name for a historical thing, but I imagined it wouldn't fly in modern America.
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A formerly really obscure one that I watched was The Electric Company (hey, it was one of Morgan Freeman's first acting gigs and even had bits starring Spiderman -- I mean, the actual Spiderman character and not just some knockoff/parody). However, I think they recently started a reboot of it.
All stuff I'll probably be getting familiar with again over the next few years now that I'm, oh, about 5-8 weeks from becoming a dad.
EDIT: Lou, c'mon. Everyone and their mother knows The Electric Company. Family Guy made a joke about it.
BTW, from the same era in my life, the best anti-smoking PSA ever:
On the flip side, I can't wait to get up for school so I can eat some leftover pizza for breakfast. Goddamn, I love leftovers for breakfast.
Welp, nice knowing you guys. I gotta go prepare for the impending US invasion.
I mean, at one point "negro" and "colored" were still considered acceptable in both informal and formal usage and remain in the names of various organizations such as the United Negro College Fund and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but nowadays, except for those aforementioned organizations, usage of them is considered old fashioned at best (if spoken by an older individual) and pretty offensive at worst, although they at least are somewhat generic. Even in other cases, it's sometimes not all that great. I've spoken to some Native Americans who don't like the term "Native American," because they feel it's valid for anyone born on American soil, even those of European ancestry. I kind of like the Canadian term, First Nations People, best in this case, although Indigenous Americans may not be bad either to parallel with Australia.
Also, race is slightly more than just a social construct, as there are certainly cases of generic illnesses and such that can be linked to race (i.e. sickle cell, Tay Sachs, and so on, depending on the background), although if the social construct were broken down and more interracial marriages were to take place, these genetic illnesses would probably be diluted across the entire human population or even vanish.
African-Caribbean-Americans as a catch-all.