By the final season of its six-year run, "Sex and the City" was almost self-parody. Whatever spark existed early in its run was mostly gone. The things critics reviled in the two "SatC" movies was already sprouting late in the TV show's run: will-she-or-won't-she romance cliches, pun-stuffed writing, shoe montages. But even then, the show was clever enough to stick with you. In hindsight, one episode feels definitive.
In Season 6, Episode 7 ("The Post-it Always Sticks Twice," which is par for the terrible SatC title course) Carrie, our heroine, receives news of a break-up with boyfriend Berger via a post-it note. It reads: "I can't. I'm sorry. Don't hate me."
In 2003, this was a shocking and comedic state of affairs. To break-up via a few short words, without personal contact? Even the jaded, seen-it-all-New York women of SatC's world were positively scandalized. A decade later, in our Tinderized world, a post-it note almost feels almost quaint.
Missouri athletic director Mike Alden can identify.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Dave Matter, former Mizzou coach Frank Haith called Alden on Thursday morning to tell him that Tulsa had offered him a seven-year deal worth roughly $1.85 million per year. Then, on Friday morning, Haith informed Alden he would accept the position. And how? Via text message.
We don't know what the text actually said, but Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger's guess seems about right:
Mike, OMG, gone to Tulsa:)! Pleez tell players. Sorry about the Miami stuff and last 2 yrs LOLz:( #yolo
— Sam Mellinger (@mellinger) April 18, 2014
The break-up analogy is an easy one. For the past decade, as technology has made communication easier, the world has also fretted that ease would translate into weightlessness -- that being able to break up with someone via text message would suddenly cause everyone to start doing so.
Anecdotally, anyway, this prophecy hasn't come to pass. Big break-up conversations are still in-person ordeals. People at least make a phone call. A text message is about as weak as it gets. End it via text, and you're liable to end up on Lulu. Be forewarned.
A more direct analogy is your own job: Can you imagine, in a million years, telling your current boss that you had accepted a new position via text message? Unacceptable, right? And yet in Haith's world, this is just how business is done. At least Berger said he was sorry.