Six
recent updates (read, further adventures) of the iconic word, Iconic. 1. ‘The
football finals are upon us and what better way to get there than on one of our
iconic trams.’ Intercom announcement at Town Hall tram-stop, Collins Street.
Their livery wants to tell us how very new they are and that they were made
(read, assembled) in Melbourne. Football finals are always iconic. Travelling
by tram is special when imbued with iconicalness. 2. ‘Microsoft is
ninja-killing yet another iconic Windows app this year. Microsoft is apparently
keen to cut its popular legacy Windows applications with storied histories.
Following the official deprecation of WordPad, another app is now heading to
the chopping block by the end of this year and will no longer be supported with
updates. We’re
talking about Paint 3D, the revised version of Microsoft Paint that’s been
available since 2016.’ PCWorld online, 12 August 2024. “Storied histories”, of eight
years or any length (it seems), are potentially iconic. Whether the apps were
iconic at the time, or will be in the future, is not asked. It is enough for ‘iconic’
to act as an intensifier in the here and now, to bolster Paint 3D’s all too
brief status in the “storied” silicon race. “Official deprecation” fast-tracks
iconicity. 3. ‘World of the Book 2024. Explore the rare, the sacred and the
iconic in this one-of-a-kind exhibition’. State Library of Victoria promotion,
where iconic is different from sacred. Sacred is not the same as iconic. What
is rare that is also iconic? Much? To be iconic is to be “one-of-a-kind”. 4. ‘Nicole
Kidman just brought back her iconic ‘90’s red curls.’ InStyle magazine, online.
Such curls remind us, we’re told, of Moulin Rouge. Is Moulin Rouge iconic? It
doesn’t say. Quote: “The actor ditched her blonde in favour of the classic look
… her hair in beachy waves in a long, messy lob.” Beachy, is that even a word?
Hair of any length may be iconic. 5. ‘Iconic Fitzroy Corner’. For Sale sign,
corner Gertrude and Brunswick Streets. No buyers for this house after several
months. Before then the building was used for offices. The adjective is a
selling device: follow the money with ‘iconic’. Opposite the Champion Hotel
corner, famous for Saturday night brawling before being turned into a post
office, then a gentrified carpet shop. Does anyone call the Champion Hotel
iconic? Did anyone, ever? 6. ‘The 100 most iconic guitars of all time.’
Billboard headline. That’s a lot of iconic guitars in the one place. Should
there be a cap on things iconic? After 10 or so don’t the guitars start losing
their iconeletricity? How iconic is Guitar 50, say, compared with Guitar 5, for
example? Slightly iconic? Moderately? Such lists have the irritating habit of
starting at 100, which means minutes of scrolling with index finger to reach
the actual really mostest iconic guitars. Anyway, what’s the criteria? How can
they tell, iconicest? Variant spelling; iconickest.
