People: They’re just like us
I recently discovered that “Us Weekly” still runs the “Stars — They’re Just Like Us!” section in their magazine. It features photos of celebrities doing everyday tasks like taking out the trash, waiting in line at the DMV, or shopping for macaroni and cheese. Groundbreaking when it premiered in 2002, the concept was quickly embraced by readers. It influenced paparazzi paychecks and celebrity culture enormously over the years. Today, Instagram has taken the idea to the next level, with celebrities and influencers orchestrating normal-life photo ops as standard procedure for personal branding.
But the original concept by “Us” editor Bonnie Fuller still strikes me as humorous. Not that celebrities did normal things, but that we somehow thought they wouldn’t. They’re human, so yes, they’re just like “us.” You know, the rest of the species. Sure, some celebrities squander their fortunes on a faux-royalty lifestyle, but the well-adjusted stars seem to behave in a reasonably human-esque way.
It makes me consider spinoffs on the “just like us” concept. I’d like a double-page spread in “Archaeology Today” magazine. I’d create a regular section called, “The Ancients — They Were Just Like Us!” It might catch on. And like the original feature in “Us Weekly,” it would debunk a myriad of misconceptions.
For example, we tend to look back and imagine that people who lived without the “technology” we utilize today were somehow simple-minded. They couldn’t be as smart as we are, right? They didn’t have Ginsu knives, Chia pets, or kiosks at gas stations where you insert money, physical or digital, in exchange for — compressed air. Nope, depending on their historical era, they spent their meager brain power building pyramids, designing aqueducts, and mapping the stars, among other frivolous pursuits.
I once read that the earliest coin-operated device dates back to the first century A.D. It dispensed holy water, the weight of the inserted coin setting in motion a mechanical process that doled out a prescribed amount of liquid to be used for ritual washing at Greek temples. When I insert $1.25 to receive a bag of pretzels at an interstate rest stop, I can smile, knowing I have an inventor from classical antiquity to thank for the privilege. (I don’t pay for compressed air.)
Researchers acknowledge that much of our STEM knowledge (science, technology, engineering and math) originated with the ancients. I read B.C. comic strips during the 1960s. I’d have to agree. Our ability to observe and in turn utilize the laws of physics and mechanics were as amazing when Petra was carved as they are now, when we throw subatomic material around in a particle accelerator. Only the names have changed.
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