As Joel noted, the New York Times’s Philip B. Corbett has added “hipster” to the newspaper’s Official Words To Now Avoid List, where it joins “tweet” and, apparently, “spokesperson”(?). Corbett’s concerns are of clarity and of a creeping newsroom reliance, and he urges Timesians to seek out alternatives (Joel threw out a few below). In anticipation of the word’s soon-to-be-scarcity, here’s a look back at some of the many appearances “hipster” has made in the Times (in just the past 90 days):
To get some New England hipster cred, order a tallboy Narragansett Beer ($3.50)…
…for hipster credibility, a dollop of darkness or noise.
My mother once came to a session with a hipster shrink …
…songs that showed large ambitions rather than hipster exclusivity…
…as an aspiring hipster did the other night at Schiller’s Liquor Bar…
…a three-day stubble and hipster horn-rim glasses.
…Williamsburg, which is home to not one but two hipster bowling alleys…
“…it wasn’t hipster heaven — but it was nice.”
….an aging, anxious hipster…
…the proto-Midwest hipster…
…a Williamsburg hipster. An aspiring filmmaker with mutton-chop sideburns…
…the Brooklyn hipster with the shaven head…
…John Cusack, then as now an avatar of insouciant hipster cool…
…hello, yarn hipster hat…
…I’m the obnoxious meat hipster…
…the growing hipster trading post with the gourmet snack stands.
…”just some design hipster kicking it old-school selling some chic tools to a handful of other hipsters.”
…more aloof, hipster-style spectators.
…hipster daters and hipster parents queue…
…the hipster who screamed, ”Murderer!”
…a merger of four former hipster bars..
…this brand of barfly theater hipster…
This is by no means an anti-hipster screed.
And, my favorite (so evocative):
The Asian hipster with the Justin Bieber shag had fallen asleep.
(Goodnight, hipster!)
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.