Allison!

Nobody ever thought that Elvis’s hips would destroy Western civilization!

Thanks, Allison. Didn’t even know that I needed to learn about Charlie Sheen’s wife – thank goodness for the ‘puter.

They object to anything perceived as new or different. It;s what conservatives do.

They have been screaming that the youth were going to destroy civilization since Socrates.

If the current condition of the U.S. is anything to go by, the aged present far more danger to civilization.

Yep and who is always responsible for destroying civilizations? Hint: It usually isn’t the youth.

Boy (figuratively…and not to insult), ain’t that the truth!

Watch it there youngster. Some of us geezers are still pretty feisty.

No problem…I’m only 43, that seems a little on the young side around here…

Mostly greedy, power mad rich fucks, to be specific.

No one was a predator on the radio. No one stole your identity through the TV. No one posted anonymous hate mail or vicious rumors through those mediums, nor were they used as a way of communicating with people in lieu of speaking face-to-face.

Well that’s just bullshit. I suppose he is thinking of an individual predator, how about predatory capitalism? No one posted vicious rumors through those mediums? RW Talk radio and tv is FILLED with vicious rumors and “hate mail”. Did the “Obama is a secret Muslim who wasn’t born in the US” only come to people via computers?

Any communication medium can be used in a nasty fashion.

Today I heard about Ann Coulter talking about how OWS protesters should be shot. Of course she said it on the radio. She will probably say it on TV and in print too, she might even tweet it. Nasty finds a way to corrupt any medium it touches.

Hmmm, let me see now. My son will be 39 in April, so maybe you are right

Nailed it, Ms Alison, thank you. People have always worried about the younger generation doing, well, most anything, but especially sex.

Jane Austen’s circle corresponded voluminously. My friends in high school spent hours on the phone. I don’t see the difference, actually.

I find it interesting that Mr. Albom (of whom I have never heard, I admit) compares the internet to radio and TV, which are both broadcast, non-interactive media. IOW, *not* ‘social interaction’. Real social interaction — face to face, written correspondence, telephone, and yes, the Internets, will always attract predators. That’s life, Mr. Albom.

That Ann Coulter, she’ll say anything for a laugh…as long as it isn’t even remotely funny.

I have a feeling that is Mitch’s way of trying to manipulate the parents to limit their kids time on the PC to dumb them down so they won’t participate in the goings on in the world.

He is afraid they might learn something not on the conservatives’ approved news and views list.

Like, say, the truth.

Talk like that might give him a heart attack.

Yeah, I think I was about 6 or 7 when I decided I had no use for TV news. I found it very annoying when I had heard/seen a story, wanted to chew it over it in my mind, wanted to consider it for a bit and the TV would immediately zip on to another story. I was like “How can anybody understand anything if they don’t have time to think it over first?”
These days, I get the local paper and that keeps me in touch with right-wing/establishment thought, but frankly, I use it mainly as LTE fodder, so I can write critical LTEs.
Nah, you’re right. I’m perfectly happy getting the bulk of my news from the Internet.

I’m always surprised when people think kids of today are goofy…. are these critics too young to remember the wailing and hyperventilating that went on when Elvis sang and wriggled or when The Beatles came to America? And I still remember when my grandfather went apoplectic about “the damned hippoes” (yes, he never quite got that they were called hippies)….. my dad and granddad drove my brother, sister and me through the Haight/Asbury during those raging days….I’ll give ‘em that!

Yep.

Hi Peg how goes it?? Hope is well..

Ed Sullivan knew, that’s why after the first night he wouldn’t let them show Elvis below the sternum, thus protecting the public from the parts known as The Devil’s Tool Shed. Sadly, the genie had already escaped and putting the plug back in the bottle accompished nothing. Fast forward to the tattered remnants of Western Civilization we see before us today.

“It’s the Apocalypse, all right. I always thought I’d have a hand in it.”
–Prof. Hubert Farnsworth

And that looks good on ANY resumé. :)

I actually remember seeing that as a kid.

Heh. That has been my life’s project. Saw Elvis, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones on Ed Sullivan. Did drugs in the 60s, became a hippie, and made free love. Then I became a commie and started my program to corrupt America’s youth.

So did my mom and sisters. They were furious. My dad probably sat there stone faced, silently cheering this triumph of censorship.

Speaking of corrupting the youth, it is time for me to toddle off. This is the last week of classes and then it is torture time (for them and for me).

I was lucky enough to get in on the tail end of the Free Love scene in the ’70s, though unfortunately without partners until some time later…

Corrupt ‘em good. Think I’ll mosey too. Wishing a splendid evening to all.

To this day i wonder what Lorence Welk had as a special bubble for those golden ladies.

You funny. Hey, ratty – nice be here at the same time you are! Didja get snow? How’s Bob feel about winter?

Dr. Dick – re Elvis…I was six when Elvis appeared on Ed Sullivan. I vaguely remember crawling across the living room carpet to get closer to the screen….Don’t be Cruel was my first 45 rpm record. Well, unless you count Gene Autry singing “Santa Claus isComing to Town.” (I don’t; I didn’t buy it.)
Oh, wait, I did request Patti Page singing “How Much is that Doggie in the Window?” I think that may be the very first song I remember. It was the subject of the song that got me though.
TMI?

So Mitch Albom has to come online in particular to say what he has to say? Also, Alison quotes him verbatim in the post but he seems to remembers his teens and twenties because he’s pretty detailed about it at MitchAlbom.Com:

Mitch was born on May 23, 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey, the middle of three children to Rhoda and Ira Albom. The family moved to the Buffalo, N.Y. area briefly before settling in Oaklyn, New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia. Mitch grew up wanting to be a cartoonist before switching to music. He taught himself to play piano, and played in bands, including The Lucky Tiger Grease Stick Band, throughout his adolescence. After attending high schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, he left for college after his junior year. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1979 at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, majoring in sociology, but stayed true to his dream of a life in music, and upon graduation, he worked for several years as a performer, both in Europe and America. One of his engagements during this time included a taverna on the Greek island of Crete, in which he was a featured American performer who sang Elvis Presley and Ray Charles songs. He also wrote and produced the recording of several songs. In his early 20’s, while living in New York, he took an interest in journalism and volunteered to work for a local weekly paper, the Queens Tribune. He eventually returned to graduate school, earning a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, followed by an MBA from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. During this time, he paid his tuition partly through work as a piano player.

I thought the “Mitch Albom” was far more over-rated than their “White Album”. :-)

Mitch is just upset that all those young people were too busy communicating on the internet and playing WOW that they don’t watch tv anymore. At least that is the reason he is telling himself that the television movie based on one of his sappy novels ended up being the lowest rated show of a night and the lowest rated Hallmark Hall of Fame movie in history. Couldn’t be that the young people had the same reaction that this absolutely not young person did – “Mitch Albom, sorry Bradley Whitford you can’t begin to make the dreck he writes palatable. No bloody way.”

Meanwhile, on The Jackie Gleason Show, the June Taylor dancers were showing off a lot of leg.