Monday, July 26, 2010

QotD: Forward into the Past Edition...

Vandam on Mad Men:
Americans were confident and believed they could get the job done, the job that was in front of them. It wasn’t always true and it didn’t always work, but people were not constantly afraid of eating the wrong food or saying the wrong thing or running into the twerps who had something to say about it.

11 comments:

Themadlemming said...

If you think about it to much, it becomes a bit depressing.

og said...

When i was in the periphery of the ad business, many years back, there were still ad agencies in Chicago where you could find windows that opened, desks with paperweights because they needed them, and ashtrays never more than ten feet away from you, no matter where you were. Lobbies had HUGE ashtrays. CEOs had humidors on their desks. And three martini lunches were the norm.

yeah, there were bad thigs going on too, but I feel like we've lost some pretty good things by losing that era.

Matt G said...

I loved the quote, and followed the link, and then found that it was recommended by Rush Limbaugh.

Meh.

That doesn't make it bad, but it doesn't make it good, and putting it forward as a good thing makes an opinion suspect, in my jaundiced eyes. I can't get past those years of his biggest popularity, when his followers (for so they were) identified themselves as DittoHeads, and his daily sermons were always a criticism of the Democrats, and exulting the Republicans.

My palette has at the very least a few shades of gray.

Anonymous said...

"My palette has at the very least a few shades of gray."

Mine too; my palate otoh, can distinguish but one taste as to recent politics: bitter and bitterer.

AT

Tam said...

You know me, Matt; I'm jes' a big ol' Dittohead. ;)

Unknown said...

Well, I've been here a lot longer than El Rushbo. It's always nice to see young folks that agree with me at least some of the time.

Iffen it don't bite back, it ain't the wrong food. I generally say what I think, and so far there's been a shortage of twerps with any objections--not that I'd pay heed.

Never had much trouble getting jobs done...

Art

Living in Babylon said...

I do like the idea of an ashtray on my desk at work, but man...have you seen the stuff they called weed back then? The stuff my grandma was smoking was like dogshit cut with pine needles.

LabRat said...

It's easy to be confident when you have absolute certainty that anyone with a significantly differing outlook will be ignored or slapped down.

Tam said...

What're you talking about, commie?

;)

Unknown said...

"...like dogshit cut with pine needles."

I wouldn't know about that, but I always figured that Bull Durham was floor sweepings from the drying barn.

Reminds me of a long-ago when I was broke, busted and disgusted and got to running with a little ol' gal from Montana. She was tough--tougher'n woodpecker lips. But she could definitely get a job done. Rolled a cigarette with one hand. Rolled me with the other...

staghounds said...

"Americans were confident and believed they could get the job done, the job that was in front of them."

Well of course they were. The Silent Generation cast of "mad men" were the children and grandchildren of the heavy industry and World War II generations, and could personally remember V-J day. They grew up in a culture of clear challenges, endurance and success.

So much so that when the only challenges left were patently impossible- eliminate poverty, make people like each other, put an end to tyranny worldwide- they couldn't say no.


And L.I.B. is right. Marijuana has been a huge beneficiary of agricultural advances.