A very hipster wave farewell.

It has been a slow week in the mail room, so permit me a moment to editorialize a bit, if you would be so kind.

If “Ask a Hipster” has a unifying theme, it has been my mission to convince people of how hipsters make the world a better, more interesting place. So much delicious food and drink exists only because hipsters wanted to eat it and drink it. So much great music exists because hipsters wanted to hear it long before the rest of the world. Now, I get it, hipsters can at times come off as a wee bit snooty and pretentious. Their mannerisms can verge on downright comical in certain respects, even to other hipsters. I’ve had my fair share of laughs at our collective expense. But recent history has done a lot to vindicate my basic thesis that hipsters are awesome. Consider the following:

I can no longer remember the first time I heard someone use the word “hipster” as an insult. I do know that it was a long time ago, back when if you couldn’t afford a copy of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea you had to steal it on BitTorrent rather than listen to it with a few ads on YouTube. More importantly, I also don’t remember the last time I heard “hipster” used as a putdown. Maybe that means it’s been a while, or maybe it means I’m so inured against the use of my vocation as a term of derogation that, like a celebrity who has grown accustomed to constant attention from the paparazzi, I hardly notice that aspect of reality any longer. But my gut tells me it’s the former reason.

I did recently see an advertisement for a line of fuel efficient wood stoves named “Hipster.” Despite carefully studying this little wood-burner, I can discern no cognizable reason for calling it that. I can only surmise that maybe the people who named it once heard the word “hipster” and thought it sounded catchy. If that factoid means anything, which it very well might not, then maybe we can conclude that “hipster” as an adjective has become accepted as a term that can be used without meanness, envy, or spite. We did it. We won. Mission accomplished. I was right the whole time. “Hipster” is a good thing, and the world gets that now.

That’s a pretty big accomplishment, and we here at “Ask a Hipster” surely deserve some of the credit for that. (Perhaps all of the credit? Is that vain?). As I read through some of my email correspondence, I realize that some of our loyal readers over the years deserve a commendation for helping with this important work: Al “Stinko” Stanko, the Progressive Guru, and David Jones all come to mind. Lots of good questions from you folks over the years. Without your inquiring minds, we might never have convinced the masses that we, the hipsters, kick all the asses.

Anyways, for those of you who came for questions and answers, here ya go.

Dear Hipster:

How does a hipster say good-bye?

— No one ever

Pretty much like this.