Word: hipping
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Though the subculture is met with derision in wider society, hipsters have been able to eke out enclaves across the country, chief among them the Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood of Williamsburg. But now even that is threatened. The hip have been hit with a double whammy of economic reality (more are struggling to pay rent as parental support dries up) and population changes (the carefully gentrified neighborhood is gradually being infiltrated by squatters inhabiting Williamsburg's stalled building projects). Hipsterdom's largest natural habitat, it seems, is under threat. (See pictures of Steve Jobs...
...Though the irony-sporting, status quo-abhorring, plaid-clad denizens of Williamsburg are a distinctly modern species, the hipster as a genus has its roots in the 1930s and '40s. The name itself was coined after the jazz age, when hip arose to describe aficionados of the growing scene. The word's origins are disputed - some say it was a derivative of "hop," a slang term for opium, while others think it comes from the West African word hipi, meaning to open one's eyes. But gradually it morphed into a noun, and the "hipster" was born...
Well, you know, a few months ago, when you brought up your own grandmother's situation [she decided to get an expensive hip replacement operation, even though she was terminally ill], I mean, it was, I think, painful and personal because every family, if they haven't hit some wrenching decision like this, is going to. As you think back on that, I mean, was that the right [medical] decision? Is this the - for your family, for her? Is this the kind of thing that a reformed system, as you see it, would change the dynamic of that decision...
Well, you know, a few months ago, when you brought up your own grandmother's situation [her choice to have an expensive hip-replacement operation, despite the fact that she was terminially ill], I mean, it was, I think, painful and personal because every family, if they haven't hit some wrenching decision like this, is going to. As you think back on that, I mean, was that the right decision? Is this the - for your family, for her? Is this the kind of thing that a reformed system, as you see it, would change the dynamic of that decision...
...even in those systems, there's still going to be hard choices, right? But the fact of the matter is, ultimately, my grandmother was able to get that hip replacement even though she had terminal cancer and even though the operation was full of risks. And so from a purely economic point of view, there would be some who argued that wasn't a good use of health care dollars. I guess my point is that...