What?! Have you no concept of context?!
It was, of course, intentional on behalf of the OP.
As it was an intentional on the part of Steve McQueen, who chose to make a statement of a kind.
With those obv. points out the way, maybe there is a discussion to be had.
As I said, the OP. It isn’t my fault that the poster failed to read it.
“Clever dick” is not the same as calling someone a “dick”, as your PM to me claimed, much in the same way as calling someone a “Grammar Nazi” isn’t the same thing as calling someone a “Nazi”.
So no, I don’t agree with your warning. If I’m being touchy then you certainly are.
Note the lack of “vulgar”, whereas “dick” does have it:
“Why don’t you just go by ‘Mike Bolton’?”
“Why should I change my name? He’s the one who sucks!”
I think those of us who are older need to concede the torch of popular culture has been passed to a new generation. Steve McQueen the actor died in 1980. Devoid of context otherwise, a current reference to Steve McQueen should be assumed to be the director.
I don’t think so. It takes a lot for a director to surpass a movie star in just levels of fame. Winning an Oscar is not enough. I’m pretty well tuned into pop culture and I had a vague idea what the director looked like. I googled and I was right probably from watching the Oscar telecast. Most people don’t pay attention to the director. I bet if there was a poll of the total populace more could remember Brad Pitt’s small role in 12 years than who directed it. Probably in a poll asking who Steve McQueen is the director will come in third behind the actor and “who?”
Agreed. I was born in 1980. I saw the OP and immediately thought of the director. I saw post #2 and was like, oh yeah, there was an actor by that name as well.
In reference to the OP, McQueen has done good work directing, but I’m not entirely sure he’s up to the greats quite yet. Don’t get me wrong, he’s done really well - but he’s only directed three films.
The average American was now born after Steve McQueen (the actor) died. And while I love Steve McQueen he’s not really an actor who has maintained an active memory in the general consciousness (like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe have). I’m amazed how many of my coworkers don’t really know who Cary Grant is and he was way bigger than McQueen for longer.
I suspect the actor would come out ahead of the director in a poll, but I’m pretty sure that if you took a poll of the average person, “who?” would win in a landslide.
As for the actor, I like his movies fine. But I don’t yet know that I have any sense of him as an artist. He may be a similar pain-in-the-ass perfectionist slowpoke as Kubrick but that doesn’t make him the unique perspective that Kubrick was. But he’s only three feature films into a career so time will tell (though at 46 he’s kind of old to really storm the world). But if he now goes on a streak knocking out the likes of Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, and 2001 then it’ll be a great career.
It’s a matter of opinion obviously. But if somebody in a movie forum asks “What do you think about Steve McQueen?” in 2015, it seems pretty reasonable to think they’re asking about the currently active director rather than the actor who died when Jimmy Carter was President.
Who?
Sorry to harp on, but I just reread this and it was you that decided to make this public in the first place. This is just insane.
Five times, including this which by any definition in a dictionary is not an insult, in sixteen years.
So considering it is only four insults, that’s one every four years.
I’m not one to moan about the moderation here, but that’s ridiculous.
Username/post combo of the day award.
I’m in my fifties, and have never heard of the director. I immediately thought of the blue-eyed actor and race driver.
Take it to ATMB if you have an issue with it, this is not the place to discuss it.
I’m pretty sure he’s the greatest mathematician who ever lived.
I’d never heard of him.
(But I have definitely heard of the actor who died when I was very little, not that I could tell you much about him.)
Okay, after a little bit of reading and a little bit of mod discussion, it turns out you’re right, this phrase is not the same as calling someone a “dick”. Learned something new today. I am reversing the warning.
Thanks.
Now, where were we?
Forty posts in to the thread and so far we’ve had one post that was an actual response to the OP.