parental psyche-shaping

Had coffee meet today with strange, strange scary bandslash, and called snowballjane just as she was finishing work and tempted her over to Foyles with the promise of a Dalek egg. Anyway. Various stuff talked over, including the droolables of our youth and looking back on them. Plus. Er. Do you ever wonder what the hell your parents were doing with the media they fed you? I have spoken of my dad feeding me things like sci-fi and history and Blackadder and so on previously.

Then I thought about what else I was raised on. Dad's way of educating me and bro was to shove an article or book at us and go 'read, this is interesting'. Except. Er. The Times editorial section. The Economist. Independent. Sunday Times Arts Review. Private Eye occasionally. The cartoons chucked my way? Fosdyke Saga and Garfield were one thing, but Doonesbury and Alex? Dad, along with discussing management and business stuff and football transfers round the dinner table... what the hell were you thinking? It's no wonder I became a complete and utter cynic about management speak before I ever stepped one foot into my A-level business studies class and immediately started getting marked down for introducing too many variables and complexities into 'problems'. (you know, those ones where they try to make a formula more interesting by basing it in 'real-life situations') 'Yeah, but, this doesn't include what happens when his tax forms come in.' 'This doesn't have any fall-backs for mid-season transfers or back-ups for inevitable injuries - oh, and sponsorship and the fact that this is a premiership team and it hasn't factored in the gates they'll get for the playoffs and various cups.' 'Oh, please, christmas is his only revenue? Have we included the pre-orders and what his outlay is for that?'