TOO OLD TO CAUSE ANY DAMAGE

As I write this, it is January 1, 2008. HAPPY NEW YEAR! My day started out no different than all the days of 2007. I got up, popped a pop-tart in the toaster, poured myself a cup of coffee, and sat down to read the Los Angeles Times front to back. I still check CNN on the computer to get up to date on what happened during the last few hours, but my newspaper is my main man, not only for the news, but the story behind the news. I couldn't start my day without it (It doesn’t matter if I spill my coffee on the paper).

Today I discovered three articles that I just had to mention. Though they were completely unrelated, each one had to be written with the same state of mind. They just HAD to.

Article #1 was actually an editorial titled, "How Cliché." The hope of the editorial, as explained by the writer, was to "perform a public service by calling attention to a few "cringe-worthy turns of phrase that have been cluttering up the language in recent years." It was very cleverly written and one of the many clichés listed jumped right out at me, "THE YouTube GENERATION." The writer is tired of this cliché and suggests it be changed to, "Young People." File that one away as we go to ...

Article #2: In the same LA Times issue, there was the story, "The Reel Geezers," written by Patrick Goldstein.


The "Reel Geezers" are Marcia Nasatir and Lorenzo Semple, who have a popular movie revue show on YouTube.


Lorenzo was one of Hollywood's top screenwriters in the 1970s. He helped write movies for virtually every star of the day, notably Warren Beatty ("The Parallax View"), Robert Redford ("Three Days of the Condor"), Steve McQueen ("Papillon") and Paul Newman ("The Drowning Pool").


Marcia, is no slouch either. She was a longtime agent, pioneering woman production executive, and producer of such films as "The Big Chill" and "Hamburger Hill."

Now digest this: Lorenzo is 84 years old and Marcia is 81. So, what about the suggestion that the cliché, " YouTube Generation" be changed to "Young People?" If it's the exception that makes the rule, the "YouTube Generation" is not just "Young People" anymore.

Article #3 was about the pardoning and recent release of 77 year-old Sara Jane Moore. If you remember, Moore was given a life sentence in the 1975 attempted assassination of President Gerald R. Ford.


OK, here's the tie in between the presidential attempted assassination article, the Reel Geezers and the cliché, "YouTube Generation." James Hewitt, the now-retired federal public defender who handled Moore's case, said, "The public should not be alarmed by her release from prison. She is pretty close to becoming an old lady. She is probably too old to cause any damage."

TOO OLD TO CAUSE ANY DAMAGE?

A native of Charleston, W. Va., Moore was an on-again, off-again FBI informant who became enmeshed in radical politics after moving to the Bay Area. A peripheral player rather than a leader, she volunteered to help the Symbionese Liberation Army, the extreme leftist band that kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.

TOO OLD TO CAUSE ANY DAMAGE?

Put all three of these articles together and you have a very strong case to get rid of the most cringe-worthy cliché that has been really cluttering up the language in recent years …

“TOO OLD.”

I was never so proud the day President Ronald Reagan stood at the Berlin wall and proclaimed, "Ich bin ein Geezer."

Stay tuned.