Does anyone remember McGruff the Crime Dog?
I wonder why they chose “gruff” as his name. I only thought of him because the word “boorish” had been pounding through my head this morning. Boorish. Boorish.
It doesn’t mean dull and uninteresting. That would be bore-ish.
Or the other bore-ish might describe someone who always goes around drilling holes in things.
I suppose there could be one more kind of boar-ish. Like some kind of wild, tusky pig.
No. The boorish I’m thinking of means rough and bad-mannered. Coarse. Gruff.
I guess if you really look at McGruff the Crime Dog, he might be a little on the boorish side, what with the rumpled overcoat and the five-o-clock shadow on his bloodhound face.
But back to boorish. It means that something, or someone, is rough and bad-mannered.
I bring this up because, in the recent past, many have people have become boorish, it seems.
It didn’t use to be this way. People used to have good manners. Sure, there were the occasional ding-dongs. Those crass people who behaved rudely. But not so very long ago, this was an uncommon sight.
These days, most days, people are punching airline attendants. They are throwing hot liquids on servers in restaurants, smashing cars with hammers, or being destructive and mean-spirited in some sort of way. Heck, there seems to be a mass shooting nearly every day. It’s like the curse of the zombies, where one person started out that way, and the next thing you know, all of civilization is no longer civilized. They are walking around with their brains in some kind of a stupor, behaving boorishly.
I should add here. I believe there are a LOT of good, kind, well-mannered people in the world. Those who still let people over in traffic, open doors for others, put the grocery cart in the corral, even if it is not theirs, and so on.
But there has been an influx of boorish, rude, discourteous people in the past few years, it seems. Uh. Let’s see. I think it started around 2016 when a certain president said it was “OK” to punch someone in the face who disagreed with you. And that it was “OK” to make fun of people with disabilities. Or that it was “OK” to treat women poorly. Or blacks. Or Jews. Yeah. Around 2016, I think it began.
Crime seems to be getting worse. More people own more guns than ever. And more people are getting shot. Daily. Here in the good old USA.
I think we may need to retire McGruff the Crime Dog, who is still actively working, I might add.
Instead, we may need someone like McMannerly, the Good Behavior Dog.
Yeah. Down with being boorish.
Up with being nice.
I double-dog dare those people. Woof.
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“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”
—Emily Post
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“Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.”
—Laurence Sterne
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“Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.”
—Eric Hoffer
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Not bored. Boor. Boorishly. Darn it.
