Uncle

Yesterday I had this minor traffic incident on my bike (a young guy had to stop for me as I had priority, and he wasn't happy and shouted something that included "ouwe" (Dutch for "oldie")), and I was reminded that in Singapore I was called "uncle" once (yeah, just once fortunately). And now I read this: "IN THE past 10 years, there has been a trend among service staff to address men over 50 as 'uncle'. I find this very offensive. We all know that 'auntie' and 'uncle' are not terms of endearment when used to address strangers in Singapore. If anything, they have come to denote someone who is old, less-educated, dull, slow-witted, nit-picking, loud, uncouth, parochial, uninformed, pedantic and clumsy, among many more negative traits. Time to do everything I can to look 10 years younger!