"Best years" again. The analyses are beside the point, he said subverting his beautiful pedantry. Those who use the phrase do so without having any determinate thought to communicate at all. It's just something that you say and comfort is taken in saying and hearing it. It's like talking to your cat: what is said is completely beside the point.
As for the thing about the car, I don't see why we have to bring that up. That was a long time ago. Anyway, I don't want to talk about it.
For the stupid things, I nominate the X-10 camera pop-up ads. I know, not many originality points here, but they do meet the main criteria of stupidity and similarity to "Suddenly Susan." To wit. (a) They are stupid: would anyone buy a product that is associated with intense annoyance? (Leaving aside from the uselessness of the gadget, of course). (b) For similarity to SS: SS had a magical power to stop TV channel surfing, for me, at least. Once you hit that, you realize that there is absolutely nothing on and that you are human slime for having stepped into SS, if only momentarily, in your degraded search for videonic entertainment. Ditto X-10 camera ads and the web.
The Chicago office, filled with the scent of its recently shampooed rugs, has spoken.
Posted by Mike Green at July 13, 2001 12:35 PM