Escapist pioneers

 

[yellow locker among orange ones]

With the Covid crisis and ongoing wars, escapism has become almost a daily need. It seems obvious today that if reality is too depressing (and drugs are not your style), a few minutes or hours of TikTok, YouTube, Netflix or cable television is the perfect way to create the illusion that everything is fine. However, people forget that once, through the 1970’s, in the United States, a few commercial television stations were the only source of home entertainment and were, on the whole, rather vanilla, i.e., directed to the average viewer as the major networks perceived such a creature (genially referred to as the Nielsen family). Today’s varied and potent range of escapism owes much to the earliest commercial TV pioneers that were willing to be different and prepare future generations how much fun it is, among things, to work out, trash athletes and cook gourmet food at home.

Jack LaLanne

Jack LaLanne

At a time when most people stopped exercising after high school or even did not know that they should keep in shape, Jack LaLanne had a morning workout show from 1951 to 1985. American housewives from the privacy of their own home would stretch and work out every morning once the children went off to school. One would think that the instructor was a hunky young man but instead he was rather older looking, quite different from today’s high-energy trainers. Somehow, he showed that you  don’t have to be a “jock” to exercise and that it even helped you feel younger and look better. Jack LaLanne had a significant role in creating the “stay fit” culture that impacts people of all ages today.

[Howard Cosell]

Howard Cosell

Watching sports is an ancient pastime. The ancient Greeks did it. Probably Neanderthal man did it but we admittely have no proof of that. Part of the fun of watching sports is making highly critical remarks about an athlete despite the fact that we may have never even played the sport or, at best, last played it several decades previously. However, through the 1960s, sports announcers were either employees of the team or maintained neutrality and only described the action. Then, Howard Cosell became a commentator in Monday Night Football and “told it like is” despite the fact that he had never played any American football in his life. He was the “average Joe” expressing his opinion on how awful the quarterback or team was, just what many of the viewers were thinking. Viewing Monday Night Football became a sort of a menage á trois, i.e., Team A vs. Team B. vs. Howard Cosell, with the third party being the most interesting. Today, any fan with an opinion can set up a podcast or YouTube channel and express their ignorance to the masses. Howard Cosell helped make that cool.

[Julia Child]

Julia Child

American home cuisine in the 1950’s was rather limited not because of the ingredients but instead due to the general ignorance of cooking. Most American women thought that home cooking and fancy restaurant dishes were two completely different worlds, like oil and water. Julia Child came along and showed them how to cook “fancy” dishes at home, changing their whole approach to cooking. Because the programs were live, she even made mistakes, which created more authenticity. Gradually, both men and women began to try to make new and adventurous food (everything is relative). Today, it is possible to watch “foodie” shows 24 hours a day as well as find recipes and demonstrations on the Internet including video demonstrations for any dish you can or cannot imagine. Some of these gurus actually make money doing so.  Julia Child had a major role in creating that culture.

Most people may have forgotten or never heard of these people now but their belief in their way of living helped create a world of personal freedom. It may feel that there are too many options and that people go too far. Yet, escapism is human too and healthy in moderation. All of today’s public fitness freaks, couch critics and cooking fanatics can thank these pioneers for their broadcasting of the joy of escapist life .

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet

The good old, old days

In Michael Crichton’s book Timeline, one character, Andrė, decides to remain in the past, specifically the year 1357, because he finds life then much more to his taste. Many readers probably identified with the longing for idyllic past with all of its simple charm and without any of modern life’s stresses. Alas, life in the pre-industrial age was not a bowl of cherries.  It may be that it was slower and less stressful but it involved much hard work and many limitations unimaginable today.

Let us discuss the basic needs for heating, cooking and light. Pre-electricity means wood or charcoal stoves, which often served all three functions. Someone, generally a lower-class woman, had to get up before dawn and get the fire going. Depending on the size of the house and its design, this limited heat did not necessary get to all of the rooms. Cooking and baking on a wood stove is an art that takes year to learn in terms of controlling the temperature. As for light, aside from the fire, people only had relatively expensive candles to extend their day.  To give a perspective, for the wedding of the daughter of the French King, Louis Phillippe (the Bourgeois) in the early 19^th century, the cost of lighting the ballroom was higher than the cost of the bride’s dress.

On the subject of clothes, pret-a-porter had not been invented, meaning you could not just go to the store and buy a pair of pants or a dress, not to mention underwear. Someone, a tailor or seamstress, had to make it specifically for you.  Each item was expensive, meaning that even the wealthy had very limited wardrobes.  As for cleaning it, without any washing machine, each item had to be taken to the river and cleaned by hand.  Talk about time-consuming and strenuous work.

The other great necessity, food, was also rather limited.  Food transportation was by wagon or boat only. Anybody distant from the few good roads or a body of water lived on what was locally available, which could lack variety and even quantity depending on the area and season. It is no surprise that most local peasant recipes involve maximum effort to attain the most benefit from any locally available food.

Of course, money solves most problems, even then. Unfortunately, money was also an issue.  The pre-industrial age was a time without bank credit, credit cards, checks or even paper money. Money was all about valuable metals and weight. Spain became rich because it plundered lots of millions of pounds in gold and silver, literally.  However, given the limitations of weight, transportation and raw materials, peripheral locations often lacked the money to conduct basic financial transactions. Those fur farmers in North America in the 17^th and 18^th century even traded in buck skins to complement the limited number of British, Dutch, French and Spanish coins they could get their hands on.

So, I personally am less excited about living the cold, dark, dirty and difficult life of 400 years ago. I am willing to put up with cell phone calls at inappropriate times, around-the-clock emails, bank account vigilance and even smog for the privilege of feeling warm, clean and fed and being capable of buying almost anything and going anywhere in this world. 2018 ain’t so bad, really.

Being First Does Matter

As Nike would like to remind us, almost nobody remembers the second person to walk on the moon (Buzz Aldrin). Clearly, being the first to achieve something does have its privileges. Here is short list of those winners and what they received:

The English came up with the first stamp, allowing the UK to be only country whose postal stamps do not state the country of issue.  They also invented the first way and technology to calculate latitude (pre-GPS), i.e. comparing noon in London with the local noon. This required an accurate clock, not a simple endeavor at the time, to keep London time.  Consequently, all time zones are related to GMT, which is located in England.   By the way, there was no daylight saving time to confuse the issue then.

The United States created the first operational telephone system, meaning that the international prefix (1) refers to the United States.  Even more brashly, it also created the Internet, giving American sites the privilege of adding only .com, not com.fr, com.de, etc.  I suppose the British would say having the time zone is more practical.

In more intellectual matters, other European powers, former and current, have created the standards.  Cooking terms are in French because nobody else invested so much effort in codifying the culinary processes.  Philosophy would be much poorer and require fewer letters if Germans had not invented the right word for each complex concept.   Has anybody ever head of an opera translated into Italian?  I would agree that Italian is a wonderful language for song, certainly sweeter than German or English. 

Other cultures also have their achievements. Japan also has its claim to fame:  The sun rises there.  Although you can’t eat or send the sun, it is an illuminating asset from the Japanese point of view.  The Chinese invented thousands of items centuries before the Europeans ever even though of them, such as gun powder and noodles.  However, alas, as is typical of the last few centuries, the West brazenly stole their ideas, improved them, and used them against the Chinese.  As the expression goes, might makes right apparently.

So, the first country to invent time travel or telepathy will have its privileges too, maybe, since sometimes, as Nike says, just win.