On My Conversation With A Wells Fargo Fraud Specialist
@GailPink I thought it was one of those scenarios where the bank shuts down your card for "suspicious charges" and you have to call them and go "no really that was me" over and over again. Wells fargo did it to me once for buying gas twice in one day?
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On What Books Make You Cringe To Remember?
I had so many romantically charged arguments with the boy I liked in high school about On The Road, so I can't hate it. We both liked the writing, but he actually found the characters aspirational, and I took the whole story as a warning tale about how not to live life.
No, what is truly embarassing was the obsession my friends and I had with the Georgia Nicolson series. An obsession that began in middle school, lasted through high school, and inserted itself into every conversation we had in the form of British slang and some of the books made up vocabulary. We had snogging scale contests. Seriously.
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On 'The Hunger Games': Bloodless, Sexless and Not Very Hungry
@DoctorDisaster I was sitting next to a young woman who kept calling out what would happen and then was really impressed with her ability to predict the plot. She apparently saw the part where Kat shoots the apple coming. SHOCKER.
This individual also shouted out "what is this, a communist country!!??" when the usher asked people to put away their phones before the film starts. She was charming.
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On Saul Bellow And The Malevolent Friend
This just reminded me how much I like the voice of Bellow. I read The Adventures of Augie March back in high school, and had put off reading Herzog, but now I'm stopping at Half Price Books on the way home!
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On The Battle For Planet Flanagan
I am apparently alone in that I really enjoyed Female Chauvinist Pigs, inflammatory title aside. I didn't think she was being like Flanagan at all - she clearly said MANY Times that her problem was not with porn or sexual promiscuity, but with women feeling like performance is their only access to sexual expression.
Also, on the subject of alarmist parents - at some point during my high school career a group of "concerned parents" put fliers on all of the cars in the school parking lot to warn parents about rainbow parties. I always thought that was funny, because the high school parking lot was full of cars driven by 16-year-olds. Did they really think we were going to bring them home and hand them over to our parents? Weren't they worried about giving us ideas?
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On Don't Say That, Say This!
@SeanP I have a job interview today! That has nothing really to do with this except I'm NERVOUS...
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On Local Twitter Slang, And All That Jawn
@hockeymom I am Minnesotan and do both of these! I know, because my boyfriend makes fun of me for both (he is also Minnesotan, but of more scrupulously correct grammar).
My excuse/explanation I once heard for the "borrow me" habit was that German uses the same word for borrow and lend. Minnesota has a huge German heritage population, and apparently when learning English way back in the day that was a common mistake. Generations later, I'm perpetuating it...Maybe someone who knows German could confirm?
As for Dude, it's a good example word, but I've heard generally we Minnesotans draw out syllables for longer than we ought. Thats more of an accent than slang though?
The closest I can come up with are things like "interesting" and "different" used as pejoratives. Someone says some crazy shit - "oh, thats interesting." Sort of like "congratulations, how wonderful" but universally understood in the north star state? This is something transplants seem to note.
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On 'Confessions of a Shopaholic': If Patricia Highsmith Wrote Chick Lit
My least favorite was the last one where she has the baby. And that gynecologist is after her husband, which is the one thing not to like about the gynecologist (she is successful and smart and references books! and knows Latin!). Okay, yes, the being after someone's husband thing IS fairly significantly horrible.
BUT - please tell me some of y'all out there were completely on the Red Haired Bitch's side when she was all "how can you love this Becky person, she is shallow and stupid?" And then everyone in the book was like "oh but she luuuuurrrves and is all genuine! she just can't help how genuinely she lies about shit WITH HER HEART!"
Grrr.
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On My Superpower Is Being Alone Forever
This totally described how I felt about online dating, but I just kept doing it because all of the single people I knew were doing it? (even the ones the author described as the kind of people who effortlessly meet people elsewhere)
And then I met my boyfriend who I love via OkCupid. But I usually forget that's how we met, because we have a lot of friends in common, and am kind of embarrassed when I remember. Maybe I have somehow internalized the 90s mentality described by ignerd above, except that I spent my teens in the decade after the millennium change.
But seriously, oh god, would someone find a way to make online dating BECOME a meet-cute story, so that when I sort of hesitantly reveal the truth I don't sound like a TV commercial?
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On I Was A Child Model! A Tragedy In Nine Pictures
Hey, two years of college drinking is pretty good.