How do you look back at the "good 'ole days" if they happened before you were even born?
BANTER BITE BACKSTORY: We read the same Axios story about "TikTok's nostalgia economy," and although the focus was "media trends" due to younger people using social media to both make fun of older people and also to flashback nostalgically, of course, we focused on very different aspects of the story.
Red smiled at the idea of Gen Z (she knew they were "much younger" than us, but until she asked Black didn't realize they were born between mid-to-late 1990s and early 2010s), looking backward toward brands she actually recognized, like The Gap for something as basic as hoodies and Abercrombie & Fitch for jeans out of the 1990s. Which made her laugh as some Gen Zs hadn't yet even been born! But what gave her a warm feeling was the idea of them wanting slower, less chaotic times. And maybe even less technology, something she could totally relate to.
Black, meanwhile, was fascinated by how TikTok algorithms work and how it makes it easy for flashback items to "reappear" and then quickly go viral. But she was also relieved to see John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, tweet that over 50% of Gen Z (and over 60% of all) polled thought life was better without social media. So, maybe there's hope of returning to a simpler time.
Which makes us both nostalgic (not something Black typically experiences), but also makes us realize that whether fashion (and the resurgence of thrift stores) or even music, at some point, "everything old is new again." And can be traced back to the Bible …although Red prefers this entertaining scene from "All That Jazz," an award-winning musical from 1979.
Labor Day celebrates the American worker. However you may celebrate, we wish you a Happy Labor Day!
Quick! If someone says "Julius Caesar," what comes to mind?
Almost everyone has heard of Julius Caesar, but how many of us really know much about him, or at least that's what Red starts to wonder when she receives the usual flippant, but still accurate, reply from her sister, after feeling very proud that she knew that July was named after the famous Roman.
Which is what got Red to realize, much to her surprise (shock, if truth be told), that even as a straight-A student with a love of history, that when it came to Julius Caesar, a famous historical figure and possibly one of the greatest generals and statesmen of all time, she couldn't tell you dates or battles or anything "historical" associated with him.
Even as a theater major in college, she never read Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," although she knew just enough about the play to know that it was where the fortune teller warned Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March." Instead, her knowledge of Caesar came from her love of movies.
My first, and probably my most enduring, memory is of a brilliant general who not only commanded armies as he conquered lands far from home but was a great statesman who was also involved with one of the world's most beautiful women. And while he was Julius Caesar and the woman was Cleopatra, to me, they'll always be Rex Harrison and Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, a movie almost as controversial as the general himself.
And Black? Besides knowing that Caesar Salad was invented by a different Caesar, she appreciates Julius Caesar's leadership skills and way with words,
There is much we can learn about leadership from Julius Caesar, whether on the battlefield, in politics, or in business (start small, take risks, communicate well), including what ultimately led to his death (always consider worst-case scenarios, never get complacent or arrogant). Many of his quotes speak (pun intended) to his powerful way with words, and the ability to not only deliver a message but to inspire (and story tell), with my favorite being, "I came, I saw, I conquered."
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