Asterix and Tintin were very much ‘in’ in our family too! So much so that for her 6th birthday my little sister unknowingly shocked my mother by asking for and ‘Orgy’ themed party. After some prying, mum realised her innocent 6yo was still innocent and thought orgies were parties where you lay around on couches eating melted cheese as depicted in Asterix and Obelix!

Oh and we had Asterix and Obelix themed bathroom tiles courtesy of Villeroy and Boch. My mum is a hoot!!

We were not supposed to read Reader’s Digest (it was too lowbrow and aimed at a grade 4 reading level), though I could not resist the morbid fascination of all those “Drama in Real Life” articles about brain surgery, cliff-hanger accidents, etc.

Pop culture was generally suspect, as was both lefty political correctness AND right-wing populism. I have to say, the last point still kinda makes sense to me.

On the other hand, Asterix and Tintin books were very much “in” with us.

Cologne and other fashions were to some extent considered “vanity”… I remember having fragrance wars with my brother using my sisters’ perfumes. We’d play “skunk” so to speak, and try to spray each other. The fragrance was called, I believe “Love’s Fresh Lemon”.

As for unwritten Blanchard rules, well, I’ve actually been grateful for an awful lot of them: I am weird by nature as well as by upbringing, so the coincidence of the two makes each one easier. Our qualities: love of black comedies, wordplay, and sarcasm; an incorrigible tendency to quote (though I am the worst of the bunch); an insatiable appetite for books; and Anglophilia, more understated in the rest of the family than in myself, I think. Self-conscious, ironic participation in social conventions is another — a sort of loving mockery of normalcy.

Negative qualities would certainly include snobbery, especially intellectual snobbery, but I think we recognize that as a fault in ourselves, so I don’t get much in the way of a transgressive thrill when I deliberately counteract it. Converting to Catholicism wasn’t much good in that respect either, since both my sisters did too and my father, though not practicing, was raised Catholic. The closest thing to a transgressive thrill I can think of is being a leftist radical — but even that, though it isn’t a Blanchardy thing to do, I’ve done in such a Blanchardy way; and my parents are conservatives, but we’re from California, so, you know.

hi
will you address this new popular song…”same love.” thanks