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Wrinkled Wisdom:  A Lesson in Slang

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Walt Whitman described slang as “…imagination and humor, breathing into its nostrils the breath of life.”  Guardians of standard English roll their eyes and bemoan slang’s degrading impact.  They are ignored.  Slang has long permeated everyday speech.  Heck, there is even an Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang that includes over 6,000 slang words and expressions from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Each generation creates its own unique slang.  This informal language conveys meaning quickly and expressively.   It establishes a sense of community among its speakers and listeners.   As someone once said, “Slang is like a secret handshake.  If you understand it, you’re in the club.” 

Remember saying we “dig it” to describe something we really liked.  You never wanted to be a square, our term for someone uncool.  That would be a bummer!  A fink was a snitch and we called the television the boob tube. 

In our youthful 1960s and 1970s, hippie slang was in.  Groovy.  Far out.  Cool.  Flower power.   “Cool” has had staying power.   Cool!

Cannabis was a symbol of hippie rebellion.  Yikes, remember Woodstock?  Our slang for marijuana was dope—one syllable not four.  We were recently politely critiqued by a young man for using the word dope.  Showing our age, apparently.   The kids refer to it as weed.  Who cares.  If we oldies are using cannabis products, it’s probably for medical reasons!  Oh, and the word dope in slang now means cool or awesome. 

Giggled reading AARP’s article titled: A Guide to Understanding Today’s Slang: We deciphered some key phrases to help you understand your grandkids.

We’ve got a few down.  OMG often conveys our feelings very effectively.  We type LOL in response to a fun text from a friend.  We really are often laughing out loud.  But, LOL, we are not going to buy that tee shirt sporting the catchy phrase: “I’m a TMI Enjoyer…You Can Never Tell Me Too Much.”  Though, admit it.  Some TMI can be very entertaining!   Didn’t know that in the 1960s a San Francisco Chronicle columnist popularized LOL as an acronym for “little old lady.”  Don’t tell the grandkids!

But, that’s about it.   Other acronyms?  IYKYK stands for “if you know, you know.”  FOMO?  Fear of missing out.  GOAT?  Greatest of all time.  Then there is fit— short for outfit.  Lit?  Something that is amazing or exciting.  Gucci reportedly means cool or going well.  That one surprised us.  Do kids even know it’s a luxury brand that’s hard on the pocketbook?  Wait.  Maybe the slang originated with the rapper Gucci Mane??  Yes.  We know.  Never heard of him either.

Knowing today’s slang doesn’t just facilitate communicating with the grandkids.  Better pay attention if you want to finish a crossword puzzle these days!  Puzzles are skewing younger.  Phat?  It will be clued as something that is very attractive or appealing.  Bae is your main squeeze in modern lingo and the answer in many recent puzzles.  We got ticked when a recent puzzle clued an answer as meaning agreement or relatable in slang.  Mood??  Huh??  We were in no mood for that.   

Surprised to learn that the word “mother” today doesn’t always mean…well, mother.  Gen Z, 13-28-year-olds, use it as slang to describe someone they admire or respect.  A positive!  Maybe its source is the drag culture, where “mother” has long been used to affectionately refer to the people who inspired them and/or their personas.  Remember RuPaul, an American drag queen, television host, singer, and actor, wrote the hit dance song “Call Me Mother”??

So, our Wrinkled Wisdom for today?  Quiz the grandkids about any slang you should be up on.  Doubt you’ll want to add any of it to your vocabulary, but knowledge is power!  When the grandkids use slang around you, just laugh and say “you really slay me!”  It’s common slang today as it was in the 70s and 80s.  So, you should feel comfortable spouting the phrase.  We’re still with it!

Wrinkled Wisdom:  How Are Those New Year’s Resolutions Coming Along??

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If you’ve already blown off your New Year’s resolutions, join the club.  Eighty percent of Americans give up on their resolutions by the second Friday of January.  That Friday even has a name—Quitter’s Day!  And, just 10% follow through on this centuries-old tradition.  Ahh, commitment issues!

Not surprisingly, we seniors are the least interested in making a resolution.  Been there; done that.  Who needs to drastically alter their routines at our age??  Guess we could resolve to never again to make a New Year’s resolution?  It’s the young’uns, 19 to 29, who are most likely to make at least one resolution and most feel pressured to do so.

What’s on the list of resolutions most commonly made each year?  Exercise more.  Like lift more…slices of pizza???  Oops!  That’s in conflict with the resolution to eat healthier.  Learn a new skill?  You’ve got to be kidding. 

Top resolutions also include a vow to save more money.  Huh?  We’re long retired.  We’ve built our nest egg.  Now we need to spend wisely and manage our investments so they see us through our golden years. 


We had to giggle about the sponsor of the septuagenarian Rolling Stones’ tour a couple of years ago—the Alliance for Lifetime Income, the trade organization for the annuity business.  Easy decision.  The band’s aging fan base perfectly matched the annuity trade group’s key demographics.

Then there are the more esoteric resolutions we are all urged to make.  Keep a positive mindset, which promises to have health benefits.  Stimulate our minds and challenge our brains to reduce the risk of memory loss and developing dementia.  Got that covered.  We play Words with Friends on our phone, bridge on-line, and have the Wordly app so we can “wordle” all day long.  And, we’re told we should link a resolution to pleasurable activities—a method called “temptation bundling.”  For example, if you resolved to eat more healthy meals, take a cooking class.  Delete.  Delete.  Delete.

For seniors, a list of recommended resolutions includes learning a new technology.  Are you kidding??   We still struggle with what we’ve got!  We are also urged to make a resolution to preserve our life stories.  We’ve already written a history of our family—the good, the bad, and the ugly.  But we do need to check out all the photographs in our house to identify long-forgotten relatives and write their names and relationships on the back.  Yikes, great grandma was quite a looker. 

It’s always entertaining to research how a tradition starts.  Reportedly, in the late first millennium B.C., a Babylonian king publicly vowed to be a better ruler, laying the groundwork for New Year’s resolutions.  The Romans cemented January 1st as the beginning of the new year.  Like the Babylonians, they celebrated with festivals and rituals, but also focused on vows of renewal like cleaning homes, stocking the pantry, paying off debts, and returning borrowed items.  Hmmm.  Those seem to be missing from popular resolutions today. 

The tradition crossed the Atlantic when the Puritans arrived in America.  One history professor explains that the Puritans wanted to avoid debauchery and reflect on the passing and coming years.  She maintains that this marked the emergence of resolutions in a modern sense.

So, our Wrinkled Wisdom for today?  If you find yourself in a situation in which it’s more diplomatic to share a New Year’s resolution, say you have resolved to smile more because it releases endorphins and creates a natural “high.”  Or, declare that you have resolved to play more with your grandkids because individuals who do so live longer and score higher on cognitive tests.  In the immortal words of George Bernard Shaw, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” P.S.  Some advice for those who still make New Year’s Resolutions and really want to keep them?   Take it from gamblers.   Find some sucker to bet you can’t do it.  Money talks.