Girls, Urban Babies and All in the Family

I've been negligent in writing recently since the Patch suddenly has an avalanche of blogs indirectly related to services people want to supply.  The only service I want to provide is to activate some reader brain cells or generate some smiles.

After nearly a year of being retired, 10 months and counting, I feel I'm not part of the demographic portrayed in the media.  My wife and I have always played the game of trying to figure out the targeted demographic for television shows by looking at the commercials.

As such, I'm tagged in a group that is on a perennial quest for the proper pill (despite a horrid litany of side effects), needs Depends, has continuous esoteric aches and pains, is encouraged to have the Government pay for a wheelchair or apparatus at the side of stairs to go up and down, must invest in silver coins, has a problematic sex life (and may have an issue after three hours), has no idea how to use an iDevice, and wishes like they lived upstairs on Downton Abbey.

In the spirit of not following my demographic and attempting to be contemporary, although I refuse to spend my time with anything Kardashian beyond making a statement like this, I started to watch Girls on HBO.  

At first I was disgusted by its self-indulgence, until I realized it’s a black comedy with elements of watching white paint dry or an apple slice gradually become discolored.  The taking cocaine at a party was hilarious.  The fantasy with an older man was also a classic layered comedy.  And who could forget eating the pet rabbit of the day for dinner.  I won't deny the seriousness of some of the attempts at serious topics about trying to navigate relationships and OCD among the mid 20s characters.  But, who among us, as an older gynecologist said in one episode, would want to be 24 again on a bet?  However, I still found something lacking in the show, albeit it is more complicated than a superficial account of post adolescence polymorphic perversity. 

The graduates of Girls eventually marry and remain in the urban environment and matriculate on the web to www.urbanbaby.com.  (Thanks to my oldest daughter for telling me about this site.)  You ‘progress’ from being unsure of yourself in the world, emerging from the prolonged adolescent child adult, to face issues like these currently posted:
-Any ideas for lunches I can bring to work next week?
-Sunglass recommendations for 4 to 5 year olds (answers include $300 glasses).
-What kind of blacksplash do you have in your kitchen?  Some classics in recent weeks have been if yogurt left on the counter overnight is safe to eat, will having sex with a friend you like change the relationship, and numerous concerns on getting your child onto the waiting list for an exclusive preschool.  Many postings on raising a child are at the level of raising a pet. I also found something lacking in this site.

But then perspective hit.  (Perspective is really partial selective memory when you get older.  It's summarized by an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon we have on our refrigerator with the line 'I can't remember what I walked into this room for, but I remember a song from 40 years ago'. ) This made me realize what is missing from Girls and the unintentional humorous posts on urbanbaby.com: an intergenerational perspective.  

The classic comedies have Mary and Lou Grant, Meat Head and Archie, and Radar and Colonel Potter and closed the circle by presenting different perspectives.  Even the Bradys have Alice.  Girls and urbanbaby.com need their Lou Grant, Archie, Colonel Potter and Alice.

Maybe the need is generated by the pseudo emotional instantaneous need for communication for anyone in our current society by way of texting or on demand television, in lieu of the slowly, but more traditional rewarding communication with friends and family by face to face, talking and writing.  This is not to deny new technologies: Skype oui, texting non.