Being a Manny Stan

I’m not cool.

I don’t know pop stars, or song titles, or influencers. I don’t get most pop culture references. Memes fly over my head. Modern slang usually passes me by entirely, generally unused and often unrecognized. When I do try to use it I come off as a silly old man and my kids roll their eyes at me. Or just laugh in my face.

So I hesitated to use “stan” in the title of this edition. I’ve literally never used the word before, in either written or verbal form. Candidly, I wasn’t precisely sure what it meant, but context clues told me it was some sort of fan and that’s what I wanted to convey. So I googled it, and it turns out I was right for a change.

“stan 1 of 2 noun

plural stans

slang, often disparaging

: an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan”