What's in a date?

I was coming downtown yesterday and saw an ad on top of a taxi for the new show, Men of a Certain Age, with Ray Romano, Scott Bakula, and Andre Braugher (who was just so good on House — you wish he could be a regular). Let’s put aside for the moment that my son has no memory of Quantum Leap….makes sense but still you forget how fleeting pop cultural is from generation to generation.

The date for the show is December 7th. So?  You know,  the date that “will live in infamy”.

Of course this is the day that our nation was brought into World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor…but the meaning of that date seems to have been lost. It certainly wasn’t in the discussion at the marketing department at TNT.

Can you imagine a big show being launched on September 11th?

Even though I was an American History major–I didn’t understand the extreme upset when I told my parents and in-laws that my older son’s due date was going to be December 7th.  “Change it!” they all shouted at once.  It wasn’t until we lived through the horror of 9/11 in the nyc that I really understood their collective upset.  December 7th was a day that forever changed their childhoods.

I wonder how long it will be before September 11th fades as a “date” that makes us all sigh and remember where we were.

So?