7 Responses to Question Lady Question

1. Steve Sailer says:

   September 20, 2012 at 7:03 am

   Paris, 1940s, cigarette smoke, sidewalk cafe, coffee, wine.

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   • epiminondas says:

     September 20, 2012 at 6:33 pm

     Any college campus, 1960s, marajuana smoke, dorm rooms, loud music, tye-dye shirts.

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2. dearieme says:

   September 20, 2012 at 10:55 am

   A particular flavour of affectation.

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3. Fenster says:

   September 20, 2012 at 2:29 pm

   Agree with Steve that its use forever has seemingly been about wartime and post-war Euro anomie, philosophy tinged by good tobacco, The Wages of Fear, etc. etc. Interesting, though, that the most common usage recently seems to be in reference to Iran’s “existential” threat to Israel–e.g., existential having to do simply with existence and not a post-war hangover. A scan of Google News suggests that while the former notion–shorthand for “oh, what’s the point?” still has traction, the latter, more pedestrian notion is picking up steam. For instance, the Arlington Planetarium is now reopening after facing an “existential threat”.

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4. Maule Driver says:

   September 20, 2012 at 3:11 pm

   No wonder I’ve always been confused about the word.
   I understand the philosophical usage but only recognize the more mundane usage as ‘correct’.
   Of course it’s all about the same thing, non?

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5. Christine says:

   September 20, 2012 at 5:48 pm

   Black turtlenecks.

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6. Brooke Bove says:

   September 23, 2012 at 4:25 am

   Who cares? Everything is meaningless.

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