67

Tuesday Tastemaker #52:
In defense of the children

Two things before we get into it, Reader.

1. I’m dropping a surprise on Small Business Saturday, Nov. 29, which I guess is not a surprise because I’m telling you about it right now—it’s $500 off The Craft and it applies to ALL the payment plans too.
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   If you’ve been hanging back, enter your info here and I’ll make sure you get first dibs. I only want 8 people in the 2026 cohort.
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2. I’m hosting a free writing workshop on Monday, December 29th, which is also my birthday. If you think it sucks to have a birthday during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when everyone is either out of town or hibernating… you’re right!
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   Help me heal my inner child and spend some time with me. I’ll be 48. Save the date.

There are three minutes left in the 4th quarter, and the arena sits on a knife’s edge.

The score? 65–46. 🤔Not exactly a nail biter.

Ah, but someone just got fouled, you see, and if they make both of their free throws, it will bring their total points to 67.

SIX SEVEN!!!!!!

The arena is full of kids for some reason—is it some kind of kids’ day? Do a lot of people take their kids to college basketball? These are the kinds of things you don’t have to know about when you don’t have kids—and as the camera pans around, they all turn in their seats, jumping up and down, squirming with anticipation.

The shooter sets up and everyone holds their breath.

Boom—sinks it. Her teammates grin. They know what’s coming.

She takes a few dribbles, lets out a breath… and ho-leeee shit, she’s done it!

SIIIIXXX SEVVVVVVEENNNNNNNNN

The crowd goes absolutely apeshit. The volume, the screaming, the thing with the hands…

Whatever you’re picturing, it’s more than that. So much more.

“Yep,” says the announcer, sounding tired. “Here we go.”

ESPN

(via jayelsen, midco.sports/IG) #67 #basketball #espnsocial

♬ original sound - ESPN

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To me, this video is pure joy. Which is why I’m bewildered when I peek at the comments…

And listen. Just because I don’t have kids doesn’t mean I haven’t experienced just how annoying a 13-year-old can be, especially when they’re trying with all their might to BE ANNOYING.

However. There’s a big gap between “ugh, will you stop that?!” and “what has our world come to?”

I can think of lots of reasons to wring our hands about this latter question. But a meaningless joke uniting kids all over the country, making them laugh and filling them with delight?

Not one of them, bro.

Actually, the whole 67 thing gives me hope beyond hope. It’s so normal. Totally analog, it occupies a realm untouched by gender expectations or 9-year-olds watching makeup tutorials or the impossible bodies of the K-Pop Demon Hunters.

Sometimes I think social media makes us feel like we have to have an opinion about everything, even if we don’t actually care in real life.

And since sitting back and letting the kids have their fun is not an especially hot take for the algorithm, there’s a lot of adult haters bemoaning 67 because…

why?

Because it doesn’t mEaN AnYtHiNg?

Maybe I have a different perspective on this because I don’t have kids, or work around kids, or surround myself with kids 24/7… but I think I know exactly what it means:

I see you. You see me. Whether we’ve never met or known each other since pre-school, we’re all in on the same joke that grownups don’t get. 67.

I also think it’s a weird choice to shit on a generation that is too young to have had any meaningful impact on the state of the world. Whatever they are, that’s on us, bro.

In any event, there’s one thing the 67 joke is NOT doing: causing harm. There’s nothing mean about it, nothing exclusive or gate-keepy, and if you don’t find that refreshing and encouraging in the midst of these troubled times, you’re missing out.

It’s good to be delighted, and to let that delight spread like a contagion. It’s good to laugh at something that makes no sense, and to double down on that laughter when some curmudgeonly grownups tell you to stop.

Not everything has to “mean” something.

P.S. I wonder if 67 will still be a thing by the time I get to issue #67 of the Tuesday Tastemaker. Guess we'll see.

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