No One Remembers The Gatekeeper's Name

 Cautionary tale: walked past a teenage girl wearing a "Nirvana" t-shirt and for an ugly second I thought "Pfft! Why can't they get their own bands?"

Then I righted myself. And I punched myself in the face. Because two things occurred to me:

a) If she'd been wearing a t-shirt with the words "Prancing Hierophant" I would not have known whether it was a band, a clothing range, a Netflix series, some Anime thing or a cocking Tik Tok meme-ery. Cause I know nothing about modern stuff.  The only reason I was able to judge her at all was because she liked the sort of things I liked at that age. Which is a strange thing to dismiss somebody for.  

And b) I was also wearing a t-shirt. It featured the cover of a Can album that was released when I was two. So I was gate-keeping her while doing the same thing she was doing. At any moment a straggling,  wizened German hippy could have rounded the corner and sneered at me for my effrontery, as I'd never seen Can live with jugglers in Koln Castle. 

And then I thought c) it's none of my business. 

So I punched myself in the head.  

Here I am in a t shirt which references Jack Douglas' character Ernie Bragg from the film "Carry On Behind" which came out when I was three and I didn't see in the cinema, therefore I have no right to wear it, as Talbot Rothwell* would likely tell me.   

*He didn't even write that one.