The Slice: Arrival of moving van loses appeal

It used to be a big deal in American life.

Onlookers studied the people and possessions for clues about hobbies, habits and lifestyle.

But nowadays a new family moving in on your block isn’t the great spectator sport it once was.

Sure, there is curiosity. There’s the hope that the newcomers don’t have insane dogs or more than the usual complement of gasoline powered noise-makers.

Still, someone like Mrs. Kravitz on “Bewitched” would not recognize the ho-hum ritual today.

Watching people move in used to be a preview of upcoming social interaction. But it’s different now. Today, close contact with these new people is not inevitable. You might never meet them.

You can decide for yourself whether that’s something to be lamented or merely a 2011 fact of life.

Of course, there’s nothing stopping someone from marching over with a plate of cookies and introducing herself in the shadow of the moving van.

That sounds friendly. But it also might activate the newcomers’ “Is this person going to be a pest?” suspicions.

There is another reason that watching the new people move in has stopped being a big deal.

Often times, if hauling in the furniture and drum kits happens during a weekday, no one else on the block is home to see it happen.

Google image searches: A friend was looking for ways to illustrate a presentation on Anglican spirituality to a college class. “What I wanted was a Benedictine monk,” she wrote.

What she got was a lot of images from the TV show “Monk” and photos of bottles of liqueur.

Warm-up question: Mentors are fine. Having someone show you the way can be a good thing. But we can also learn from watching those we know to have consistently poor judgment. Do you now or did you when younger have an anti-mentor who always demonstrates the opposite of how to conduct oneself?

Today’s Slice question: Do you have an acquaintance or co-worker you regard as a DUI waiting to happen?