Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Here's to you, crabby old bitches

Avenue Q's overarching message

Princeton (Benjamin Sutton) and Gary Coleman (Eboni Muse) doing their best to enjoy life. - Image by Adriana Zuniga-Williams
Princeton (Benjamin Sutton) and Gary Coleman (Eboni Muse) doing their best to enjoy life.

There’s a scene in the first act of Avenue Q (playing through August 28 at the O.B. Playhouse) where Kate Monster (Catie Marron) argues with her boss, the ancient Lavinia Thistletwat, voiced and performed by Michael van Allen. In her anger, Kate calls Mrs. Thistletwat a “crabby old bitch,” to which the salty crone retorts:

“Crabby old bitches are the bedrock of this nation.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Everybody laughs, which, of course, they should, because it’s genuinely uproarious.

It’s also true, and worth pondering as a foil to Avenue Q’s overarching message that being a young adult in the 21st Century is a lot harder than people recognize; admittedly a message that needs to be put out there. It’s en vogue to characterize “young people” (which could mean anything from teenagers to anybody under 40, depending on who’s doing the hating) as lazy because they’re too often facing a 33rd birthday without a real career in sight. Meanwhile, their peers are founding Snapchat.

Google “lazy self-entitled millennials” if you don’t believe that.

I can say from experience that it isn’t easy to have grown up in the sky’s-the-limit ’90s, only to slide into an adulthood defined by the post-9/11 police state and financial turmoil from Enron to the Wall Street bailout. Of course it sucks to be us!

But, let me say, compared to those “crabby old bitches,” we don’t always look so good.

Think about it. Who’s the character in Avenue Q who least bemoans her lot in life?

Thistletwat, that’s who.

She, like millions of crabby old bitches in this country, nay, this world, has survived a lot of terrible shit in her day, and she probably did so to the great benefit of her progeny and future generations. We all have a laundry list of women in our lives we’ve confined to the role of crabby old bitch. Have they not had it at least as bad as we have, survived the worst, and become the tough old birds we know and love? How much do we collectively owe them (my gut says, “a lot”), and when was the last time you heard a crabby old bitch whine about not “finding her purpose?”

Hell, when she was a little girl, people thought domestic violence was funny.

Here’s to you, you crabby old bitches. You truly are the bedrock of this nation, and you provide a healthy dose of perspective when my first-world problems seem insurmountable.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Woodpeckers are stocking away acorns, Amorous tarantulas

Stunning sycamores, Mars rising
Next Article

Live Five: Sitting On Stacy, Matte Blvck, Think X, Hendrix Celebration, Coriander

Alt-ska, dark electro-pop, tributes, and coastal rock in Solana Beach, Little Italy, Pacific Beach
Princeton (Benjamin Sutton) and Gary Coleman (Eboni Muse) doing their best to enjoy life. - Image by Adriana Zuniga-Williams
Princeton (Benjamin Sutton) and Gary Coleman (Eboni Muse) doing their best to enjoy life.

There’s a scene in the first act of Avenue Q (playing through August 28 at the O.B. Playhouse) where Kate Monster (Catie Marron) argues with her boss, the ancient Lavinia Thistletwat, voiced and performed by Michael van Allen. In her anger, Kate calls Mrs. Thistletwat a “crabby old bitch,” to which the salty crone retorts:

“Crabby old bitches are the bedrock of this nation.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Everybody laughs, which, of course, they should, because it’s genuinely uproarious.

It’s also true, and worth pondering as a foil to Avenue Q’s overarching message that being a young adult in the 21st Century is a lot harder than people recognize; admittedly a message that needs to be put out there. It’s en vogue to characterize “young people” (which could mean anything from teenagers to anybody under 40, depending on who’s doing the hating) as lazy because they’re too often facing a 33rd birthday without a real career in sight. Meanwhile, their peers are founding Snapchat.

Google “lazy self-entitled millennials” if you don’t believe that.

I can say from experience that it isn’t easy to have grown up in the sky’s-the-limit ’90s, only to slide into an adulthood defined by the post-9/11 police state and financial turmoil from Enron to the Wall Street bailout. Of course it sucks to be us!

But, let me say, compared to those “crabby old bitches,” we don’t always look so good.

Think about it. Who’s the character in Avenue Q who least bemoans her lot in life?

Thistletwat, that’s who.

She, like millions of crabby old bitches in this country, nay, this world, has survived a lot of terrible shit in her day, and she probably did so to the great benefit of her progeny and future generations. We all have a laundry list of women in our lives we’ve confined to the role of crabby old bitch. Have they not had it at least as bad as we have, survived the worst, and become the tough old birds we know and love? How much do we collectively owe them (my gut says, “a lot”), and when was the last time you heard a crabby old bitch whine about not “finding her purpose?”

Hell, when she was a little girl, people thought domestic violence was funny.

Here’s to you, you crabby old bitches. You truly are the bedrock of this nation, and you provide a healthy dose of perspective when my first-world problems seem insurmountable.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Second largest yellowfin tuna caught by rod and reel

Excel does it again
Next Article

Undocumented workers break for Trump in 2024

Illegals Vote for Felon
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader