That is a comment by Aaron Miller to an article by Jon Gabriel published on Ricochet about not liking New Year's eve because it's mostly people who go, "Woo!"
I had no idea Nick and Nora were such lushes. The compilation has them appear quite unattractive. I heard of them a million times but never saw them once. I know their dog is Asta only because of crossword puzzles. It's a gimme. And any combination of those names can crack a recalcitrant corner. But if you told me it was really Asta and Charles Nora and their dog Nick, I'd have to believe you.
Anyway I still don't get it. It doesn't make sense. The answer is Nick and Nora deal with the Woo!ers by staying drunk and giving each other the short shrift?
The comments are negative about New Year's as the post. They indicate a mature readership. Somewhat fuddy-duddy. Not at all like the kids having fun.
Others compare it with Halloween and with Martin Luther King Day and with St. Patrick's Day. Others specify what they are drinking quietly at home and what specific cigars they are smoking. One commenter first kissed his wife on New Year's, so...
Interesting reading people studiously avoiding reveling.
None of them mentioned themselves aging and none of them mentioned MADD.
Police used to stop drunk drivers on amateur night, even involving accidents, and give it a pass because, New Year's.
But then as baby boomer generation matured and lose a couple thousand loving husbands and fathers to drunks, on a night in particular, lose a few thousand mothers, beloved sons and daughters to drunk driving and all of a sudden there's gotta be a law shutting down all the carefree drinking on that special arbitrary night, and come to think of it all nights, and there goes the fun. All the fun. It's dependent on alcohol. That is singularly the main change from the fun times of yore. I blame MADD because they changed the laws.
Now, if it were such fun and if revelers were not so old presently and had MADD not changed laws and subsequent attitudes then Uber could stand a chance of resurrecting the fun, but all that did happen so Uber cannot resurrect the truly drunken fun of days gone by. Too bad. Drunks lose. You'll have a toned down version and that will involve forced Woo!s. Be thankful the reveling doesn't involve vuvuzelas.
15 comments:
Love The Thin Man series of movies. I'm thinking that either the second or third movie begins with them returning home exhausted from a cross country train trip on New Year's Eve to find a party going on in their home. They change into their finest partying togs, leave and get involved in a murder. All with clever banter. I could be wrong. It's been awhile.
BTW, googling around trying unsuccessfully to verify that, I found that the first film was made the year after Prohibition ended. Perhaps all the drinking reflected the zeitgeist of the time?
I watched the Thin Man last night (they were doing a marathon on Turner Movies, but I could only catch the first one). Those two crack me up.
They need to drink a lot, those glasses are so tiny.
Happy New Year! woo.
"They need to drink a lot"
A woman after my own heart!
Proposal of marriage to follow (were it not my wife of 42 years, lol)
** "for my wife" Too much Irish Coffee, lol
Last night I watched the last installment of Mission Impossible.
Where Ethan Hunt again dares everybody to figure out what he is thinking.
You don't want to marry me. I'm trouble! In any case, ditch the wife and lets go to bora bora. I'll bring the martini shaker. :)
It has been so bloomin' cold here. I want some global warming. where is it?
Oooh. I love the Nick and Nora movies. The clothes, the furniture, the glitz, the glam and all the sophisticated drinking. They are just fun to watch. The Art Deco era is my favorite and much of my house and decorative items are in that style.
We didn't go Woo Hoo!!! on New Years and haven't partied in years. My husband calls it amateur night. We had hot toddies because my hubby is just getting over a cold and a good hot buttered rum is always good for that!!! Then we binge watched some shows on netflix and had dinner.
@ April Yeah!!! where is that global warming. Our temp low last night was 6 degrees and it is only going to be about 28 high today. No relief in sight either for the next few weeks. COLD COLD COLD. The river below our house is totally frozen over and the geese are just walking around on it. Gimme some global warming!!!
We went out for dinner last night to one of our favorite spots, and the restaurant was so understaffed that it really sucked. After that, I was not in the mood for being out with the woo!ers, but my girl has an irrepressible nuclear-fueled fun light that rarely flickers, so out we went. We love Uber, and by that time it was running 3X normal pricing. Once we got out and walked around town, we finally settled into a really nice bar with no cover charge after passing up a number of them with $20-$25 tags. By then I was really enjoying the conversation, and party atmosphere, especially being out on the town with two beautiful women - mine and her 22 year old daughter. After Mid-night we walked over a mile to another place, where we eventually got thrown out after last call. I called Uber, and it was 8X normal pricing, so I called a Taxicab, which was going to take 40 minutes, and the dispatcher's accent was so bad I wasn't sure if they were even coming, so I went back to Uber, which arrived in less than 60 seconds. It was probably double the cost of the cab, but no instructions required, no discussion of location or destination and we arrived home long before the cab even came to pick us up. I tried to cancel the cab twice, but got hung up on both times. Taxis are so 2014. Give me Uber or give me death! Literally. And although I hate drunks, I find Nora and her drinking very attractive. I think it's the Cosby in me.
"The Thin Man" movie was based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett. It presents an idealized version of his marriage to Lillian Hellmann. It's quite a load of crap. Their actual relationship was quite nasty, but I suppose something good came out of it. You can't make mayonnaise without breaking eggs.........Tom Cruise has made quite a lot of good movies. On many levels he seems to be a jerk, but he's got this idiot savant ability to make good movies.
Maybe Chip's right that there's less drinking now than there was in the pre-MADD era. Shatters my illusion that membership in the WASP ruling class continues to hinge on being pickled half the time. Okay, the ruling class isn't nearly as WASPy as it used to be but don't WASPs continue to drink their lunch?
Dashiell Hammett spent 30 years in need of something way stronger than beer goggles.
How many times did he have to respond to "Does Stalinism make my ass look fat?"
Okay, you've convinced me. I'll not let this compilation be the thing. I'll give them another fair try with freshly opened mind unburdened with preconception and fortified with new insight.
I hope this works. Because the banter reminded me of Toni's style with me so casual and careless that eventually ruined things. I did not return it because she is so sensitive and that's not how I want to communicate with people I love anyway. Toni enjoys that type of clever but damaging deal-off-the-bottom-of-the-deck banter and I do not.
And we live in the period a second prohibition being lifted and can expect lighthearted treatment in movies and t.v. of smoking joints casually, discussing types of marijuana, robbing each other's joints, puffing to the end and passing them a blown out doobie, "Hey, where's my stash?," being stoned and casually disregarding, put a dog in it so something is sensible. What would that be like? I picture it. Same emotional response, but I'll give them another honest earnest go. Because you like them.
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