How to Tell When a Trend has Crested ...
 

You find the much sought-after item in the supermarket.

In a gumball machine.

Not the ones that dispense gumballs, but the ones that have those plastic bubbles with some sort of toy inside?

I will sometimes stop and check these out. Today I did so and found that I had my choice of small plastic gang members (I got a Sharky! No. It's not a dolphin!!) and there was a big machine that dispensed those rubber bracelet things. These weren't made to promote any particular cause ... rather they are encouraging some activity or positive quality. Self-esteem bracelets if you will. What the heck. I threw 50¢ into the machine.

I got "HONOR."

How cool is that?

Good catch.. I wonder what all the other options are? I'd be happy to get one that says "smartass." Or maybe "doesn't know when to shut up."

How to tell when a trend is aging? Well, I noted that there is a small store doing "body piercings" at the mall. (I assume mostly navel, but I didn't have a chance to go in, so who knows.) My immediate reaction was, "When they start having a store devoted to something at Granite Run Mall in Media, PA, it is not only no longer hip and cutting edge, it's on its way out."

One rule of the universe, which is even more reliable than death & taxes, states that a trend is within five minutes of being over once said trend gets a writeup in a major newspaper.

When it's on VH1 instead of MTV.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

http://www.gothamist.com/images/2004_07_daali.jpg

I found some of those fuzzy cuff type bracelets in one of those machines once. I got red.

I think we can tell if a trend is over when you see every subculture adopt a "version" of that trend....like there is a kid version and then a walmart version, etc.

When my mom has heard of it ...

Ha! Good one. I was actually thinking of trying the Southpark technique with my boy and his friggin' Yu-gi-oh! cards. Honestly though, I can't even pretend to understand them, much less be interested in them...

No no Beestie, it's "R-E-S-P-E-C-K"

"If you look up da word respeck in da dictionary you will find dat it is not even listed..."
-- Ali G

There were so many funny gags in his shows but that was the one that floored me the most, for some reason.

Went and got the actual Ali G quote.

"Respeck - it's so uncommon dat you doesn't find it in da dictionary..."

Respec is when you have put points into talents that you later wish you hadn't, so you "respec" the points, and put them where you want them. It usually costs a gold or so the first time.....