Greetings all. First of all, it goes without saying, I hope this missive finds you and your families navigating covid19 as well as possible. I know some of you are fighting on the front lines of it, some have suffered through it, some of you have lost family members to it. I send my heartfelt condolences and best wishes to you all to survive and recover from the pain and disorientation caused by the pandemic and efforts to stop its spread.

The blog is taking a detour from its original intent, which was just to stay in touch with family and friends while I was abroad working on humanitarian initiatives and provide glimpses into the trials and tribulations of my privileged existence as an expat in some of the more troubled spots on earth. But now that every spot on earth seems to be troubled it doesn’t seem as necessary or interesting. Hence a change in modus operandi of read the tea leaves.

Also to continue to blithely continue to provide updates on pura vida in Costa Rica while I’m blissfully ensconced here is sure to become redundant and tedious, or worse, potentially engender resentment as many of you are still giving your all on the front lines, and in your homes with your children, and navigating the new normal of zoom fatigue, etc., or worse really struggling through diminished incomes and fearful for how you will continue to keep body and soul together through the coming economic downturn until we are through the worst of the pandemic and maybe on the uptick in the swoosh recovery. I feel you on that last bit, but am just more fortunate in where I’m waiting it out.

Going forward for a while I am going to pick one cliché per post, and then expound on it, either related to (hopefully humorous or poignant) episodes in my own life, or, share my opinion on topical events. I’ll take requests! Feel free to use the comment box to suggest a cliché. I’ve included a very short list below in case you want to use as a pick list.

The title of this blog “Dial a Cliché” might be recognizable to some of you Karens or other members of my Gen-X demo (btw I strenously object to personally being a Karen, except in rare moments when I am asserting my rights as a consumer with obdurate customer service reps or gate agents…oh crap…I think I just incriminated myself? (“Methinks thou dost protest too much” much?!)) Anyway, Dial a Cliché is a Morrissey song from his 1988 album Viva Hate. He and his original band, The Smiths, were like the pied piper of the angst-filled and melancholy stages of my adolescence.

And so today’s blog is taking you on a tangent with me down memory lane, or at least the corridors of Schenley High School, because It reminds me of the time in Freshman or Sophomore year when a bunch of us showed up at school pushing a soundtrack we had all independently discovered after going record shopping (in very High Fidelity-looking record stores like the one on Forbes Avenue in Oakland where I found my copy). It was a soundtrack for a movie none of us had seen yet, John Hughes’ Pretty in Pink.

As an aside, Pretty in Pink, while a fine “other side of the tracks” film, with a heartbreakingly pouty lower-lipped Andrew McCarthy and a pathologically nonplussed James Spader as the rich kids to Molly Ringwald’s poor orphaned but one-of-a-kind bohemian earnest urchin was not the best effort of his brat pack movies of the 80s, which were pretty important pop cultural mileposts in the middle school and high school era of the 80s. It did not hold a candle (haha – see what I did there?) to The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles or even Weird Science. However, the soundtrack with tracks by all of our favorite up and coming alternative Brit bands really was of the moment and we all immediately and simultaneously latched onto it.

As another aside, a really catchy Smiths song was on the Pretty in Pink soundtrack and is like top 20 Smiths (maybe even cracking Top 10): Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want  although it doesn’t come close to as good as the anthem How Soon is Now #amiright. Incidentally How Soon is Now was sampled in Hippychick which was also an adorable early 90s song. But I digress…

So after said weekend of record shopping, we all turn up at school on the stairs that we used to hang out on between classes with the cassette tape of the soundtrack, but none of us was able to take credit for introducing the rest of us to what we each independently thought was unicorn of a find that our friends would be so delighted and amazed to learn about. It took a little out of the wind of our sails as would-be music influencers (eons before that was a thing). I wonder if that could happen now – I mean outside of when Taylor Swift or Queen B drop albums that are downloaded by millions concurrently, are kids organically stumbling on music by potentially less-than-headline acts that speaks to broad subsets of their peers on spotify or apple beats1 playlists? Seems like sources of new, up-and-coming musicians and other pop cultural references are more diffuse now. Or maybe I only think that because I’m not on IG and am not influenced by any influencers. Or please correct me are influencers now so much of a thing they’re with a capital “I”?

A cliché, or cliche (UK: /ˈkliːʃeɪ/ or US: /kliˈʃeɪ/), is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being trite or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel.

It’s been observed that I tend to drop more than my fair share of clichés into conversation (in fact there are two or three above {sigh} not even done on purpose) so I don’t deny it. Not sure why I’m so stuck on clichés I guess a lack of originality? Or a more positive spin, an abililty to draw connections and land on an apt expression to encapsulate common occurrences in our day-to-day lives.

Short List of Cliches:

• The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
• Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
• I’m like a kid in a candy store.
• I lost track of time.
• Roses are red, violets are blue…
• Time heals all wounds.
• We’re not laughing at you, we’re laughing with you.
• Play your cards right.
• Read between the lines.
• Beauty is only skin deep.
• Birds of a feather flock together.
• Let’s touch base.
• When you’re between a rock and a hard place.
• It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
• The proof is in the pudding.
• When it rains it pours.
• Lightning never strikes in the same place twice.
• It is what it is.
• Business is business.
• Rules are rules.
• Whatever happens, happens.
• The who’s who.
• When you know what’s what.
• A deal’s a deal.

Incidentally hose last five on the list came from the most recent Seinfeld comedy special on Netflix 23 Hours to Kill which was entertaining, but maybe funnier for married men of the OK Boomer versus Karen age brackets.

Here are some write-in cliches (thanks peanut gallery!):

• More than you can shake a stick at.
• A chip off the ole block.
• All’s well that ends well.
• Between a rock and a hard place.
• Fit as a fiddle.
• The writing’s on the wall.
• A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
• Waiting for the other shoe to drop.
• Strange times.
• The simple things in life.