Tuesday, March 03, 2009

"JonHamm is now following you on Twitter"

Yeah, right. Yesterday morning Doonesbury had a great riff on Twitter and how ridiculous it is in a way. The last panel has the sellout reporter Roland tweeting "About to scratch myself. Stand by."

Then today I get notified that JonHamm is now following me on Twitter. Mmm-hmmm. So I go look. And it is Jon Hamm. No, really. The actor. The star of Mad Men, one of my favorite shows on TV. And on Feb. 20th he's tweeted "Should I be embarrassed to be making mac & cheese for dinner? At least I'm using gruyere and truffle oil." Well, I couldn't resist. I tweeted him. And now I feel like I'm in some Twilight Zone episode. Or that this moment, though strangely comical and trivial, is also some kind of turning point, some marker that I'll look back on later and think, This was it. This was when I could feel it, the change in our culture. History happening. Not in an obvious, measurable, history book, Obama-gets-elected-president kind of way. That feels like a normal change. This feels more like a paradigm shift. Oh, that phrase is so overused now, you probably just tuned out. Or maybe you already think I sound like William Shatner ranting about the man on the plane wing...

I used to just shake my head and think "Kids today" when I saw people texting like addicts on their cel phones, but I don't know anymore. It's all adding up to something weird and new. I'm not saying it's bad. Do we finally connect with each other again on a personal level after families have spread across the country and everyone is plugged in to their own personal audio environment? Will the insane level of celebrity worship actually stop if we can tweet Jon Hamm about making mac & cheese? It's a thought. I'm having a thought.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been on Percoset all day for a migraine, I'm PMS'ing, I'm suffering from depression and probably Seasonal Affective Disorder, and I live in the Midwest, where March is the cruelest month of the year. On the other hand, I got out of the house today, on the spur of the moment I took Toddler out to a park and climbed through the snowbank to push her in a swing for the first time in months and she grinned a big toothy grin she was so happy; my dog put up with Toddler hugging her head and they napped together with Toddler's feet on dog's butt; Toddler and I watched some of Jungle Book and then marched around the house like the Elephants. So it was a full day. I can't help thinking of Kurt Vonnegut.

2 comments:

Kitty said...

I feel ignorant. I don't know this Jon Hamm person. I don't Tweet. I don't use truffle oil.

I am however, pi$$ed off with this winter, I love The Jungle Book, and have marched like an elephant in my time.

x

Chris said...

This is phunny. You make me smile. Oh, not the percocet and the pms and the mac & cheese. just the thought thing.

I wish I were as active and prolific as you are. I wish I was as definite about things. I wish I was as confident as you are. I'm not even kidding.

Mostly, I wish Jon Hamm was following me.