Wednesday, January 28, 2015

2391 Hack in Style


I confess. I get a little impatient with the lack of style in our modern world.

Like wheels.  Those big wheels you see on modern cars.  You know the ones, the rims are like 18 or more inches and leave just enough room for some very narrow tires.

They look great on the modern cars because the body designs are so sleek and low slung, like Chevy's new GTO.  That's where they belong.  Because occasionally you see an owner of an old car like, oh, an old GTO, try to trick it up by putting on the same big wheel narrow tire combo.  Not so good.  The old car's body lines make it look like it's perched too high on the wheels.

Like a hippo on high heels. 

Secondly, when did the word "hack" come in style to mean shortcut?  It used to be a secret penetration of code, a workaround, so I suppose you could call it a shortcut.  I'm certainly comfortable with the word meaning just that in that context. 

But lately every news service around feels it's necessary to describe any quick and easy shortcut as a hack.  "Millennials are ditching delivery with this kitchen hack!" said one headline.  "This DIY hack can save you money!" said another. 

Really?  Can we just keep hack in use in computer land and cigarette coughs?  Just saying.

Lastly, if you're a trained reporter, change your Tweet picture to something serious.  I've read too many Tweeters recently, posting about solemn or tragic events, and the stupid profile picture that accompanies the tweet is some happy-sappy selfie they snapped on a pubcrawl. 

It's like kitchen hacks and hippo rims.  Bad style. Incongruous, incompatible, out of place.  Jarring.  

Like Desmond Tutu in an actual tutu. 

America, ya gotta love it. 

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