Da Dud
The term "da bomb" officially belongs on the ash heap of outdated methods to try to explain your affection for something and at the same time try to sound cool doing it.
As in, "This Jack In The Box Spicy Chicken Biscuit is da bomb!" or "Jeff, you are da bomb for hooking me up with that Big Pun CD... it's, you know ... da bomb!"
(A common refrain for a person in my situation might be to say that I "hate people who say that." Actually, I hate people who say they hate people for saying things. Actually, no, I don't hate them, either. Hate is reserved for mosquitoes. Neither can I say they are gay. "Da bomb" isn't an indicator of sexual orientation. Let's just say ... it makes my eyes roll).
The problem isn't that the term is sooo '90s.
We still say "cool." That term came out before I was born some three decades ago. Or am I too old now and not cool enough to be an authority on whether "cool" is a cool thing to say anymore?
If so, that's cool.
Maybe today, bombs don't seem as "da bomb" as they used to be when it didn't feel like bombs were falling everywhere, all the time.
Maybe there's just something about "da bomb." You know, something ... about it.
Something desperate and dead-on-arrival when its use falls into the hands of middle-aged white dudes who finally bowed to the avalanche of cultural ridicule to cut their mullets and immediately grew goatees to harness the Samson-like power they crave.
Perhaps the argument is best made by something I heard while driving the other day:
During the work week, I don't listen to music when I drive. I'm working, I'm not myself, and I just want to hear people drone like the drone I am.
So, I listen to the local talk stations. Da bomb, they are not. Hackneyed, short-sighted and rife with sycophants. NPR comes on in the morning (and the word "morning" and I don't agree, because it's not da bomb, either). And the public radio station can't seem to shake playing nothing but bluegrass music all day long.
The sports station is full of talk about my Gamecocks' hated arch-rival and its second-generation missing link following, nearby Clempson University. So, I listen to the "news" station, which is best described by the same example I use to describe "da bomb."
They're doing promotions for their station, playing soundbites of callers talking up the station's attributes. Chiming in with "opinions," otherwise known as "huge stinking anal secretions."
A guy with a thick, deep-woods accent pops up. It's the voice that you hear that you can't distinguish from the other voices that are usually talking about banal things like how they hate the fact that girls' skirts are so short these days.
For right now, he's talking about how da bomb the station's weather guy is.
"Man, you are da bomb!" he screams.
Which leads me to an interesting and unexpected conclusion: Somehow he and the rest of these people who help remind me how dead I am inside while on my drive home from work ... they are da bomb.
And that doesn't mean what it used to.
6 comments:
I take it that Upstate radio has not improved in the six years it's been since I lived there?
When I lived in the Upstate, I seem to recall that there were these choices:
* Oldies.
* Oldies.
* Oldies.
* Did I mention oldies?
* Classic rock.
* Another classic rock station, with slightly louder DJs.
* A pop station, "with butt-thumping bass". Mostly played all that annoying music you wish you could turn off when walking by the trendy clothing shops in the mall.
* Country.
* More country.
* Even more country, with extra twang.
* We Serve Both Fans
* Angry right-wing talk radio. (lots of that)
* Religious talk radio. (lots of that, too)
Radio is one thing I don't miss from the Upstate. :)
Somehow he and the rest of these people who help remind me how dead I am inside while on my drive home from work are da bomb.
I can't get past the hick accents and total lack of common sense to listen.
And the public radio station can't seem to shake playing nothing but bluegrass music otherwise.
What else would they play coming from a place called Spindale?
rick, i think you just about described it. JAMZ just recently overtook the ratings. which is cool enough with me, i guess. it's all the same, really. what bugs me is that the only rock station that claims newness does nothing but play 90s grunge and rocker poseurs. i feel cheated.
fa ... sometimes it's their neurotic claim to "common sense" that makes me most disgusted.
duckie ... thanks for the 'fo shizzle. i'm going to puke now. :)
e+
"fo shizzle" - what on earth does that mean? for sure?
for me, "the dog's bollocks" will never become uncool...mainly because they're getting licked a lot.
you've got it, dan.
it's the brainchild of the one and only snoop dogg. put "-izzle" in the middle of words.
coincidentally, snoop himself a few years back implored us to (in his own words) L.I.G. ... or let it go.
i swear. i saw it on MTV.
e+
That was enlightening. I guess I never thought about it that way. I've never been one to say "Da Bomb", but I do think I'll cringe a little when I hear other people say it from now on.
Thanks for bringing this to so many people's attention.
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