LET’S GET MATURE

According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, “mature” is defined as (1) “based on slow, careful consideration (judgment)”; (2) “having undergone maturation”; (3) “characteristic of, or suitable to, a mature individual.”

Try as I might, I cannot see the application of the above definitions to the notation in last Sunday’s Calendar that an upcoming Sam Kinison concert is “for mature audiences only.”

I am familiar with Kinison’s material, and it seems to me that perhaps “for degenerate audiences only” might be more appropriate. The use of the “mature audiences” designation for concerts, movies, etc., is as amusing and puzzling to me as the use of “adult,” as in “adult” bookstores, “adult” theaters, etc.

But wait . . . perhaps I was too hasty with my dismissal of the “mature” appellation, for the last definition rendered by Webster seems most appropriate indeed: “Belonging to the middle portion of a cycle of erosion.”

SHARON BIGGERS

Huntington Beach