Small Normals

Be it our daily bread, the birds outside or parenting styles, things aren’t like they used to be.

Black-nosed, sable-haired and short-legged, the pug—aka the ‘Hutch Puppy’—has replaced the Labrador as the happy family mascot, ever since the memorable commercial for the cell phone service was aired. The little fella looks like it crashed top-speed into a wall, but only makes it all the more cuddly.

Kissed by caramel, kneaded with whole wheat, and heavier in the mouth than plain-old white. Brown is the colour of bread being chosen by yuppies. Unscrupulous suppliers keen to cash in on this have been adding artificial colour to regular white dough, producing tanned loaves.

That upturned 20-litre water jar has become a part of our homes and offices. Sourced by converting hard water to soft by reverse osmosis or falsely touted as sourced from natural springs, water encased in plastic, not metal taps, is our new daily quench.

It’s normal among teens, couples to know and talk about the mean days in the month. She’s PMS or I’m PMS is part of parlance. An astounding feature on the Apple iPhone, it recognises gender differences and allows women to track their cycles.

Made homeless by tall glass-fronted buildings where they can’t get a grip or nest. Unable to find any grain in backyards, sparrows have gone missing from city life. Taking the place of these cheerful chirpers are predatory crows scavenging garbage heaps, undisturbed by vultures.

No more “I’m telling you” hollers from on high. In times of plenty, parents loosen their grip and kids become equals, and let kids make their own choices about everything from cellphones to pizza toppings. From “do as I say” to “how about it?”

CDs killed the idea of rewind. Then came the disc and dat formats on the internet, the MP3 and Real Player. Now we’ve got iTunes and iPods, naked music without the encumbrance of sleeve notes. Album jackets? Buy them on eBay. 

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