British dramas, NPR, and Recycling

I try to avoid bandwagons, but I can't help but love Downton Abbey despite its current trendiness. It is everything I adore in British period pieces--complex characters, stupid sexist laws, arbitrary rules of a ridiculous society that I wish I had been a part of. It's impossible not to love the show as far as I'm concerned.

I bought the first season over a year ago when it came out on DVD because it looked like something I would like, but I was busy with school and life and I never got around to watching it. Then I started to hear some of the buzz around the 2nd season, so I dusted off season 1 and watched it for the first time within a 36 hour period (mostly between 12 and 3am). Then I watched the entire second season in about the same amount of time.

Andy knows I've been a bit obsessed with it lately, so he sent me this cartoon from PennyArcade, a website that he loves. He often sends me comics, but they're about gaming and weird geek stuff that I don't understand or find amusing, so I ignore them.

But this one:
made me laugh a bit because it's a perfect trifecta. NPR, Downton, and recycling. Andy knows me well. I'm not sure when it became cool to listen to NPR, but I've been at it for about a decade, since my friend Amber introduced me. Recycling has been the cause of several near break-ups between me and Andy, and I judge everyone around me who doesn't.

So then I started to over-think it way too much.

What do those three things have in common?

Well, recycling and NPR are considered more liberal if you're looking at politics, but Downton Abbey certainly doesn't fit that criteria (unless you count the man kiss). Plus, both my parents and Andy's parents recycle, and they are as conservative as they come.

Well, I did hear a program about Downton Abbey on NPR last week, talking about the historical context of butlers and servants and such. But what about recycling?

Anyway, the point is, I spent way too much time thinking about this stupid comic, trying to understand the connection. So then Andy came into the room where I was talking to myself, and I explained my conundrum with the cartoon he'd sent.

He started laughing. "You really don't get it?"

I said no.

He said, "they're all things old people do. All it means is you're getting old."

So now I know.