The New York Times has a column titled Modern Love, and a promo for this one keeps coming up in my Reddit feed. Now sure, I’m old and out of touch, but hopefully nowhere near as out of touch as this short story is. It’s got a typical skateboard stereotype and seems like it’s written for a young adult audience instead of the New York Times. But what do I know? Angela Cravens is getting paid to write for the Times, while it costs me money to keep Skate and Annoy going.
The illustration style and the smaller headline threw me for a loop as I was about to scroll past it. I had to do a double take because I thought it was about an older woman dating a 14 year old skateboarder.
Let’s unpack a few of the choice bits.
Sure, sure. Every skateboarder who’s ever placed 3rd or higher in amateur contest tells the story of a “potential professional skateboarding career.”
Dirtbags are seductive! Explains how I got lucky I guess. I thought it was punk rock. Maybe new wave.
I have so many questions, starting with where and how did she manage to acquire vintage skateboarding magazines on such a short timeline, and how was this list of potential magazines curated?
Ah yes.. rebellion. Where the angel tells you to be a rebel and drop in, but the devils tells you… Wait, shouldn’t that be the other way around? Safety first I guess.
This story is, as the kids say, “cringe.” Do they actually still say that? I don’t know. Did I punctuate those previous sentences correctly? Probably not, I don’t write for the New York Times.
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