# I call bullshit on Mary Chapin Carptenter's new Starbucks cup quote **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 1, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975 "2005-11-01T21:22:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/101 "2005-11-02T19:15:14Z")
This 21-year-old opened this thread and wondered, “Didn’t Mary Chapin Carpenter die of anorexia back in the 70s?” ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/102 "2005-11-02T19:24:50Z")
> [@SanibelMan](#): > > This 21-year-old opened this thread and wondered, “Didn’t Mary Chapin Carpenter die of anorexia back in the 70s?” You’re confused – she died in a car crash on the Long Island Expressway. (Her husband Harry was driving). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/103 "2005-11-02T19:33:49Z")
I thought he was a truck driver and it involved 30,000 lbs of bananas. ---
**Author:** ![Feydeau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df788c/32.png) [@Feydeau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feydeau)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/104 "2005-11-02T19:42:34Z")
No, her car crashed as she was driving away from a nuclear power plant. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/105 "2005-11-02T19:44:57Z")
> [@](#): > > “I was in a local national coffee chain a couple of years ago. It begins with an S. And I was eavesdropping on the conversation between the cashier and the barista. And one of them said to the other, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that song Strawberry Fields, but I don’t know the band.” And I remember standing there and looking at them and sort of gauging, okay, I think they’re both maybe about 23, 24, how can this be? What the conversation illustrated for me was, there really is a generation gap. There really is. And until that time, I didn’t believe there was such a thing. But there is.” Wow. Well, I don’t know who this carpenter lady is, but she sounds all right. Observant and honest. And though I _was_ being facetious, I honestly have never heard the Carpenters. I don’t know a single one of their/her songs. I’ve heard her name before, though. _puts on her headphones to listen to her own idols, Gorillaz, Cibo Matto, Kid Koala, and_ Blur\*\* 😛 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/106 "2005-11-02T19:52:10Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > And though I _was_ being facetious, I honestly have never heard the Carpenters. I don’t know a single one of their/her songs. I’ve heard her name before, though. Ummm…[Mary Chapin Carpenter](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-0728607-7021452) and [The Carpenters](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-0728607-7021452) are completely different creatures. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/107 "2005-11-02T19:57:48Z")
Oh, **Anastasaeon** , you’re making me feel old. Mary Chapin Carpenter is a country/folk singer who is best compared to Roseanne Cash. The Carpenters were a brother/sister folk duo featuring Karen and Richard Carpenter. My joke about the 30,000 lbs of bananas was based on a song by troubador Harry Chapin. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/108 "2005-11-02T20:11:52Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Ummm…[Mary Chapin Carpenter](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-0728607-7021452) and [The Carpenters](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-0728607-7021452) are completely different creatures. :smack: Well, there you go! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/109 "2005-11-02T20:13:06Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > Oh, **Anastasaeon** , you’re making me feel old. Mary Chapin Carpenter is a country/folk singer who is best compared to Roseanne Cash. The Carpenters were a brother/sister folk duo featuring Karen and Richard Carpenter. > > My joke about the 30,000 lbs of bananas was based on a song by troubador Harry Chapin. … [sub] Who’s Roseanne Cash? Who’s Harry Chapin?[/sub] :o ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/110 "2005-11-02T20:36:20Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > What’s all this about Harry Chapin and The Carpenters now? > Speak up, sonny! Huh? I thought he said he was so hairy he was chafing the car bender. Quit mumbling, you little punk … and get off my lawn … ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/111 "2005-11-02T20:38:42Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > This has got to be the most depressing thread I’ve read in years. “Never heard it”? “Lame hippie band”? SUCK?!? Settle?!? > > Damn kids today. Damn stupid kids don’t know jack shit about jack shit. Talk about gleefully wallowing in ignorance. Fucking morons. I’m outa here. Ha, same thing could be said about you old farts, except while us youngins don’t know songs from before we were born, you probably don’t know jack shit about music going on today. Sorry we ain’t music history majors, but I think you should be equally sorry you don’t know what is going on in the music world at this very moment. Put on your wraparound sunglasses and actually take a look around the current world instead of constantly looking up your ass at the past! Ya old coot! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/112 "2005-11-02T20:59:04Z")
> [@Epimetheus](#): > > Ha, same thing could be said about you old farts, Old farts? OLD FARTS? I’m a young fart, thankyouverymuch. So my Blue Suede Shoes are now orthopedic and my Long Beautiful Hair is growing out of my ears instead of my scalp. It was My Generation that taught our square elders that we were right and they were uptight. It was us who knew that the way to solve the world’s problems was to turn it up to 11 and party hearty. We not only listened to the Greatest Show on Heaven, Hell or Earth, we _defined_ it. We were the first to have rocked and rolled all night. And now you punk-ass kids come in here and say “Who were the Beatles?” Fuckin’ A, you sound like our parents! The Beatles, man! Sabbath! Floyd! Zep! 2112!!! Damn, you must be a narc or somethin’. You’ll never understand my generation! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to feed the goldfish in my platform shoes. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/113 "2005-11-02T21:04:08Z")
> [@Epimetheus](#): > > Ha, same thing could be said about you old farts, except while us youngins don’t know songs from before we were born, you probably don’t know jack shit about music going on today. > > Sorry we ain’t music history majors, but I think you should be equally sorry you don’t know what is going on in the music world at this very moment. Put on your wraparound sunglasses and actually take a look around the current world instead of constantly looking up your ass at the past! > > Ya old coot! > > 😉 Guilty guilty guilty. Well, except for the sunglasses part. I don’t know much about today’s music, I confess. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/114 "2005-11-02T21:09:32Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to feed the goldfish in my platform shoes. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/115 "2005-11-02T21:47:38Z")
Something’s only common knowledge if you happen to know it. There’s plenty of people who haven’t heard the phrase “23 Skidoo” or “cats pajamas”. Plenty of people have never heard of Ween, though in some circles they are practically legendary. I used to work in a record store, and I had to make a real effort to keep up in some genres simply because I didn’t have a taste for those particular genres. Of course, there’s generation gaps. There’s fucking gaps of this sort all over the place. It doesn’t mean someone’s stupid or even particularly ignorant, they just haven’t encountered or paid attenteion to a particular bit of knowledge you happened to pick up. So fucking what? And as for Mary Chapin Carpenter’s quote on a coffee cup, I could very well see that story as being true, but again, so fucking what? Any meaning it has as cultural commentary is non-existent, or at least plain meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/116 "2005-11-02T22:37:33Z")
For the hell of it, I asked my little brother (22) if he’d ever heard of the song. Nope. I think I might know the song. Do they sound really stoned and sing about “forever” a bunch of times? Yeah. Not a Beatles song I’d listen to on purpose; I vastly prefer “A Taste Of Honey” and “Blackbird.” The only reason I ever think about it at all is the fact that Bush references it in “Glycerine.” I didn’t know they sang the song mentioned earlier in this thread “Hey Bulldog” until I found out that the version I know is a cover by Toad The Wet Sprocket - and the cover is better too. No one should really be surprised that someone born long after the band broke up doesn’t know one of their more popular- and I mean still popular ftr - songs. I mean, Jesus, I really like “Just Out Of Reach” by the Zombies among other tracks, but I’m not petenious enough to look down on someone for assuming that most 20-somethings haven’t heard of it. The band broke up 9-10 years before I was born, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/117 "2005-11-02T22:41:11Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > … > > [sub] Who’s Roseanne Cash? Who’s Harry Chapin?[/sub] :o :: smacks **Anastasaeon** with my cane :: Danged whippersnapper. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/118 "2005-11-03T01:41:30Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > This has got to be the most depressing thread I’ve read in years. “Never heard it”? “Lame hippie band”? SUCK?!? Settle?!? > > Damn kids today. Damn stupid kids don’t know jack shit about jack shit. Talk about gleefully wallowing in ignorance. Fucking morons. I’m outa here. > > 'Scuse grandpa while he kisses the sky.\* > > \*That’s a song reference, ya dumb kids. I’m pushing 40 now so I grew up in a time where the Beatles were still the rage. I remember hearing this band all the time on pop radio. I thought they sucked then, I think they suck now. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/119 "2005-11-03T02:21:49Z")
For the record, there is only one good singer with the name Cash and that would be the Man in Black. Though his duets weren’t that bad. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975/120 "2005-11-03T03:18:53Z")
> [@Grandiloquent](#): > > Here’s the quote, in its entirety: > > “I was in a local national coffee chain a couple of years ago. It begins with an S. And I was eavesdropping on the conversation between the cashier and the barista. And one of them said to the other, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that song Strawberry Fields, but I don’t know the band.” And I remember standing there and looking at them and sort of gauging, okay, I think they’re both maybe about 23, 24, how can this be? What the conversation illustrated for me was, there really is a generation gap. There really is. And until that time, I didn’t believe there was such a thing. But there is.” > > From [http://www.kgsr.com/iTOOLIncludes/marychapin.htm](http://www.kgsr.com/iTOOLIncludes/marychapin.htm) When looking at the OP, I figgered,“Ok, somebody at Starbuck’s lifted a quote from an interview, and all they saw was her talking to their guy at the counter, so a nice quoty for their cups” This has proved to be true, from Grandi’s link. MJC must have been contacted to allow the quote printed on the cups, though. I can see her saying, “OK fine, tis true, how I felt” Now, look at this brouhaha. From the above quote, she was hearing younger people talk about music, and is amazed they didn’t know the biggest hip band of her era. I’m 44, and have always been involved with music , and understand what she sees. Hell, I’ve had Iggy Pop spit on me, lost my hearing at a Ramones concert, have travelled with many a wild amazing musician, but it still comes down to The Gap, when you become older, and you see younger people not know what was important and amazing when you were young. And, they doubt you can ever have understood how important the best thing now is. It’s a hard sigh to see it, but , c’est la vie. Mary Chapin Carpenter was just saying that, and Starbuck’s reduced it to a shadow of meaning on a cup quote. So, fuckyaddas to them for reducing it so for a Celebrity jag. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-bullshit-on-mary-chapin-carptenters-new-starbucks-cup-quote/328975.md?page=7)