Age

Rajan R is quite a guy.

Not yet out of Form Six but he’s been blogging for a while on stuff that's ignored by most teens his age. He mangles the language too much for my liking, but he’s so plugged in he’s literally up to his nose-hair in world affairs.

Gained some notoriety too. Got his 15 minutes when Instapundit linked his blog for his comprehensive coverage on the genocide in Sudan (now that’s a nice change from all the introspection common to bloggers!) Really commendable. Occasionally he goes out of his depth, gets entangled in ad hominem exchanges (pretty virulent ones too) spiced up with 2-bit name-calling of the garden variety. He slugs it out heroically, but he’s holding up fine.

[Hey, the guy's on the PHYW list]

Anyway, a few days ago Travel 2165 (whoever this person is) hit below the belt. Started 'demeaning' Rajan’s age among other things (Rajan’s own words), and earned the honour of being the first to be banned from posting comments.

Ah, the age thing.

In the last American Idol finals, Diana DeGarmo’s age was Simon Cowell’s hobby horse: "You’re only 16! How many mountains have you climbed, Diana? How many rivers have you swum?"

Sometime ago, an executive with a bank with whom we were working on a promotions campaign caught me by surprise with a request. Could we send someone ‘younger’ to liaise with her instead? "Can talk more easily," said she.

That’s not half as funny as the hair stylist who asked me after a hair cut: "So Uncle, any colour you want to dye your hair?"