7 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Actually, it sounds French, to me.

Pablum must be one of those French words.

And, a word that is not often used.

 

If the word is French, anyway, and I use it about three times in my adult life, and probably never used it when I was below the age of two...

Does it really matter?

Everybody misspells French words, and nobody bats an eyelid.

 

It's actually derived from Latin.

 

Apparently the contraction first appeared on a box of baby food cereal. As the product was quite bland and insipid, hence the modern meaning.

 

The original meaning was as nourishment physically and intellectually.

14 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Jumped out at me when I first listened to The Cars, or the first time in a very long time, last week.

I was sitting listening, and it became readily apparent.

So then, I figured I needed to discuss this similarity with my friends on TV.

Not a bad Topic, but difficult to keep entirely on-track,...which is a very good kind of Topic...

For me.

 

I guess that I never really listen to the Cars beyond their debut album.

  Elliot Easton...a decent guitar player.   The band...pop goes the weasel... live performance was the equivalent of listening to a "cassette tape" loud...both a waste of  time and $$$   Next up "Boston"  Tom Sholz ..not even a "decent" guitar player ... and they should have paid people to sit thru their interpretation of a performance..    but hey, some people are happy and satisfied eating corn flakes and believing they are nutritious.

11 hours ago, Lacessit said:

It's actually derived from Latin.

 

Apparently the contraction first appeared on a box of baby food cereal. As the product was quite bland and insipid, hence the modern meaning.

 

The original meaning was as nourishment physically and intellectually.

 

So then...

 

You are saying that everything relating to intellect has become dumbed down in modern times.

Obviously so.

 

28 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

So then...

 

You are saying that everything relating to intellect has become dumbed down in modern times.

Obviously so.

 

The English language is in a constant state of evolution.

 

Has it occurred to you most of the dumbing down seems to originate with Americans?

4 hours ago, Lacessit said:

The English language is in a constant state of evolution.

 

Has it occurred to you most of the dumbing down seems to originate with Americans?

 

Yes, It is true that dumbing down of Americans has been observable to all non-Americans for at least the past 50 years.

This dumbing of products has affected many types of products used by Americans, including calculators (except HP calculators), washing machines...

Clothing, including cargo shorts, and even exports such as FryTalk and Up-Talking originating in California.

 

But, this dumbing down is now happening, as well, in places like England.

These days, the original inhabitants are leaving for life in other countries.

And, there is a constant flow up and into what was formerly known as England.

What flow?

The flow of hordes from Africa and other countries, hordes with different taste preferences in quality, engineering, and design.

In the near future, one will see people walking around with head-coverings fashioned from paper sacks instead of cloth.

Just bags on their heads, really.

No shoes.

And, public toilets will begin to go unused.

 

In the future; quality products will be found only in the history books.

 

American power is just too strong, as well as being too dumb.

This ultimate power has corrupted American taste preferences ultimately.

 

China's culture is becoming more powerful, as well.

And, just as in the case of powerful American culture, Chinese culture is now being corrupted.

This corruption originates with the West, of course.

 

A perfect example is the CarSick Cars, linked above.

 

 

On 2/21/2025 at 3:43 PM, GammaGlobulin said:

 

What is the carbon dating on those bones, please.

 

I don't have them handy to tell you

On 2/21/2025 at 11:39 AM, TheAppletons said:

 

  The Cars actually had two lead vocalists and it can be difficult to tell which is singing.

 

  Ric Ocasek is generally promoted as lead vocalist but a surprising number of their better known songs were sung by Benjamin Orr.

 

(For example: I always thought Ocasek was vocalist on "It's All I Can Do".....nope.)

 

 

They're not too hard to tell apart.