So Safire

Wrote a letter to William Safire yesterday. Here's part of it, responding to his column on the word so.

This note may be a week late, but the following info has no sell-by date. The ironic use of "so" to refer to something outdated when it's not actually that outdated, was popularized before Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In Heathers (1989), a black comedy and cult favorite which satirizes high school culture, the character Heather Chandler tells Heather McNamara : "Grow up, Heather, bulimia is so '87." I suppose one might argue that this source is a bit obscure. But this was the movie (well, along with the not-so-good Pump Up the Volume) that catapulted the young Christian Slater to his short-lived stardom.