The standard portrait of a curmudgeon is an old man shaking his fist at neighbourhood kids, shouting "GET OFF MY LAWN" (he's no apartment dweller.) While some comedians and comic actors use curmudgeonly humour to great effect, a sourpuss offstage is usually no fun, no fun at all.
I was sitting at a picnic table of an outdoor cafe in the company of five over-50 people - I was the oldest in age and youngest in dress (Rolling Stones' T-shirt) and haircut (a la David Beckham), if not in attitude - when the conversation took a turn toward predictable complaints about today's youth, their dress, their music, their language, their manners. I stayed silent, embarrassed for the group, because we could be heard by people at adjacent tables, and because it was all my doing when I had made what I thought was an innocent humorous remark about tattoos.
The woman sitting on my left finally admonished the group for acting like a bunch of church ladies, and after I told another joke, conversation returned to neutral subjects.
Nobody plans to grow up a crank (one of 18 synonyms of 'curmudgeon'), so it may be a shock when a friend suggests as politely as possible that you may have become one of them.
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