Survival: Sitting at the dinner table for a Christmas dinner can be one of the most socially-awkward times of the year. All depends on how Ure relations are with the other people at the table.
Since Elaine and I are “dispersed parents” we don’t have but ourselves to entertain over Christmas, though we may jump up to a casino not far away during the nominal “workweek” between Christmas and New Years to visit with friends there are enjoy the company of other grown-ups.
Gone, for many families, is the joy of having a dad (or mom) set the tone of a dinner conversation that includes at least have a dozen aunts and uncles coming by with their collected families for a solid dose of turkey and everything else. If you have such an event planned, enjoy the hell out of it: It’s another American value on the chopping block. That said, we made a short list of topics we’d suggest if things get a little too “calm” that is sure to start fist-fights or yelling matches.
(Continues below)
Here are some of our suggested conversation starters:
Turn off your phone. This is a family dinner.
People today don’t seem to understand that there are two kinds of relationships between people: The e-lationship and the RE-lationship.
Understand the difference is key: e-lationships are dandy when they are based on a RElationship, but the majority are not. e-lationships are sick and sad while RElationships are, well, real.
If you have a tough time distinguishing, ask a simple question:
Will whoever you are ignoring me for PayPal you $20 bucks right this instant? Ask them….let me see if they are a “friend.”
We tend to forget that while ultra-sociability indeed works for many thing (mainly to engage brain cells) the reality is that probably 90 percent of “friends” would never share a dime with you.
I have a DIRTY SECRET: I think if you put half of online “workgroups” on Facebook, American Industry could save billions. That’s because brains are more evenly distributed than we like to believe. We – all of us – constitute the middle of the Bell Curve.
If the dinner is still progressing, ask an intelligent “news-based” question to gauge the mental capacity of your audience.
“Uncle Dave, you fancy yourself a military affairs whiz. So, what is your assessment of Status-6? (Uncle Dave needs to read Urban and here.)
“Aunt Cathy, what percent of wheat sold in the USA is genetically modified?” (Aunt Cathy needs to read here for 2014 data.)
“Cousin Dick: Did the F.C. C. just sell us out by ending Net Neutrality?” If Cousin Dick needs to look this up, he doesn’t understand the “yes we want no bananas please” rule of labeling proposed laws and rules. In the words of Carlin the Great: “It’s all bullshit and it’s all bad for you.“
Now we get into the really verboten stuff:
“Grandpa, I’m not clear on something and maybe you could offer some perspective for me: What’s the difference between prostitution and marriage?”
There is only one correct answer here: The tax break
“Grandma, did you ever have any affairs?”
Not that we care…but it’s a show-stopper and would make a dynamite YouTube video.
“Grandpa, did you ever screw around on Grandma?“
We know Grandma deserves equal-time. Again, great video footage.
If you’ve gotten this far and think these are serious suggestions, guess again. They work us up to a point.
In our family, the Dinner Table was the holy of holies where generations can lay out their differences and defend their actions. Elaine didn’t have such an upbringing but has seen it with envy.
What you’re really after -beyond a meal – is a clearer understanding of just what it is that one generation has in mind, either in reaction to, or to clean up after, what the generation before it left undone or messed-up.
It’s just as well we aren’t with our offspring this year. The new generation doesn’t seem to have contributed much. Cancer hasn’t been wiped out, HIV still kills, and superficiality rules. They’re on what’s basically a free ride.
Thinking about this: The Internet started in August of 1991. So it will be 27-years old this coming summer. Score? Millennials zero. Apps and games don’t count.
And the ubiquitous computer chip? 1961 by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. So we’re….uh….57-year into the chips in 2018.
“George, Ure being mean to Millennials…”
Awe shit. OK, did they invent transistors? No. 1947 for the PNP type. You go look up NPN’s if you’re interested. Seventy-one years!!!!!
Microwaves? Radarange went on the market in 1946. 72-years.
Television? 1927….so that technology will turn 91 next year.
Still think I’m being too hard on the poor little social just-us whiners?
Try ABS BRAKES. 1970.
First Trojan condoms? 1919.
Invention of tampons? (with an applicator) 1940.
I’m getting to a point about Ure family dinners, back in the day. They were encyclopedic, laid out the history that got us to the present, and in a way tasked each of us to find a way to put shoulder to the wheel of history.
They were all like this: Sitting down at the dinner table was like the gourmet version of Trivial Pursuit. My dad, who was called the “walking encyclopedia” at the fire house (“…ask Cap!“) was prepped by careful study of the latest Time Magazine to arrive at the house. His “smoking chair”, a white leather chair that seemed immune to Camel smoke, was occupied immediately upon delivery of the journal.
When times got better, other publications can along like the old Dow Jones National Observer.
But there’s a key lesson I’ve never forgotten about my dad’s view of the news.
You don’t really need to listen to the radio (all snooze, all the time) stations because they do a crappy job of deeply informing people. In order to really get to the guts of trends, NPR does better, but even here, radio is quite time-constrained.
Instead, you might pick up a good general news magazine today and pass on the manic banter that passes for “informed” in the “inform ation age.” Frequency is no substitute for depth.
Read Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News (plus maybe The Atlantic) and read ’em cover-to-cover this week before you go the family dinner. Toss in a check of the year-to-date rainfall and a look at the 30-day extended weather forecast, and your general education credits to earn a spot in the conversation will be earned.
Toss in short, but interesting 30-second summaries of key concepts from whatever your field of work is, and you’d be a welcome guest at any table; least-wise among Ure kind of people.
Turn off the phone and remember: e-lations are mostly worthless. But a feast of food for the soul with your relations?
That can’t be beat.
e-lationships are shallow and wide. (Like San Francisco Bay) Relationships are deep and narrow. We’ve gone crazy on the former and we’re failing on the latter.
In our rush to “Be first” we’ve gone off into the ditch on the real task of “Being best.”
Write when you get rich,
George@ure.net
Reading Time etc. in waiting rooms recently has me recalling why I cancelled subscriptions in the first place. The deafening echo chamber of smug liberalism, with all the trappings of religion, are too annoying. My mother subscribes to The Week, which is quite a time saver. But a rare exception.
David Wilcock explained it well when he said that in New York, where his family was from, they simply didn’t know anybody who would even think of voting for Trump. His victory was unimaginable to them, and thus they will grasp at fake Russian interference etc. rather than explore the idea that most Americans strongly disagree with their Worldview. Sadly, these are the people who control news magazines.
I quit reading those three in the late 80s, early 90s as the bias was crystal clear then. Now if you want insight into what the left is thinking & narratiev they’re pushing, sure go for it.
In our family, huge holiday dinners were for laughing and telling stories… a wonderful midwestern tradition that migrated to California with us. My mother had many brothers and sisters who married and continued to proliferate, so there was never a shortage of material. As an invisible little kid, it was great fun to slip in with the men for awhile (their stories were a little edgier) and then go into the kitchen where the women were “doing dishes” — and a lot of talking. It was warm, friendly, comfortable, loving. People who had known each other a long time and were comfortable with sharing their foibles. I miss them more than I can say.
Mary,Thank you so very much,a remembrance such as you have shared brings tears to me.
If all children lived in such a loving environment of mutual respect and caring for others and with them surrounded by extended family what a wonderful start to life!!!
meant to add this story to my comment above. Thank you G.U. for letting me add my comments here.
http://www.dailyherald.com/news/20171216/medinah-couple-married-71-years-die-within-minutes-of-each-other
My pleasure. It was my normal — and I thought everyone grew up that way. Recently, I had an opportunity to get together with some cousins, and we realized that we are now the keepers of the lore. There are 32 of us, so a wonderful opportunity to hear the same story told differently! It’s a lot of fun.
George
It is a good thing your family were not auctioneers, or there would have been epic bids on things like, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, breast meat or leg !! All in that rapid fire Texas gibberish that auctioneers can produce. But worthy of a You Tube video !!
We were all in Seattle, too…not so many auctioneers up there
https://urbansurvival.com/coping-christmas-dinner-topics/#comment-43049
If you know all that stuff you are well prepared for a world that no longer exists.
That’s why most Millennialsare not interest in a world no longer relevant.
Unfortunately reading a book that tells a person how to survive hell isn’t quite the same as living it. We have been fortunate nothing has touched our shores.. This time it will
Bah Hum Bug…..
Commercialised to the max.. But then really how many binky bonkdoodles do you need to be happy…
Status-6, aka “Kanyon.” Putin doesn’t do anything ‘small!’
George;
Time ,Newsweek US News and World report all left bias now.Same old left wing stuff. Use to read them every week in 60’s and 70’s/
The Status 6 deep sea nuke stuff is OLD too.
I read articles in 1960’s and early 70’s about parking 3 Polaris subs off east and west coasts. detonating them to get a wall of water and radioactive sodium 1000 feet high to kill the east and west coasts. Preserve the big farm area’s in middle of country. The big hideout of White Sulphur springs for congress in West virginia was oh so secret but I had 2 uncles who helped build it plumber/electrician and everyone in West Virginia knew it was there. Just like Stalin knew the Trinity Nuke test results as fast as Truman did.Now 75 to 80% of Americans live within 3 hours of our coastlines. Target rich environment. 90 Fukushim’s in america after EMP. Need thorium Nuclear power. On earth and in space.
Well…what was Grandpa’s answer