Friday Miscellany

Herewith, some random observations that have been on my mind for a while and which I have not managed to blog about before now:

Reading Material
I don't know what I was thinking when I stopped at the library the other day; I'm still not done with Founding Brothers, I haven't finished the February issue of Martha Stewart Living (although like all good porn, MSL is pretty timeless), and I'm drowning in Wall Street Journals (I find those crazy pro-business conservatives so amusing!). Luckily both of the books I wanted, Chain of Command and It's My Party Too, were checked out. Of course, yesterday I added another title to my list after the TiVo refused to cooperate and changed to CNN's interview with the author instead of Your Weather Today on the Weather Channel: Honeymoon With My Brother, by Franz Wisner . Sounds like my kind of book (note to self: mention it to brothers Eric & Matt, who've also traveled the world together).

And Marijuana is Still Illegal?
In the WTF department: A new beer from Budweiser with caffeine, guarana, and ginseng. Rather than "beer with something extra", call it "Red Bull with alcohol".

WTF Part II
Last evening Al took Austen out for a walk so I could get some work done, and the plastic cover he put on the stroller to keep Austen warm & cozy blew off. A woman helped Al retrieve it and then exclaimed over the cuteness of the baby. "I wonder if he'll grow up to run a dry cleaners or a restaurant?" she said. When Al related the story, it took me a minute to realize why she identified those two particular possibilities. Weird that both Al and I would experience racial prejudice in the same week (the same week we happened to see Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, which identifies—and pokes fun at—so many racial stereotypes).

What is Life Teaching These People?
Speaking of weird things people have said to us about Austen, in the first two weeks of his life no less than three women—at different times and places—remarked on his cuteness and then followed up with, "who would ever want to harm a baby?" Uh, yeah. Luckily these comments stopped (for a while there every woman I met on a street corner asked instead, "are you breastfeeding?"), but then something weird happened in the La Colombe coffee store the other day: An old homeless gentleman was trying to engage the baristas in conversation, and in so doing he was blocking my access to the bar where the baristas set up everyone's coffee. The female barista brought this to his attention, and the homeless man turned to me and said, "You know, I would never hurt your baby." When he saw the startled look on my face, he followed up with, "you know why? Because then I would die." "Yes," I replied. "At my hands."

Posted by Lori in books and movies and philadelphia at 12:49 PM on February 18, 2005

Comments (3)

OMG! (my first use of that abbreviation)A dry cleaner or a restuarant? That woman must have been hopped up on the new caffinated, guaranaised, ginseg Budweiser.

Has Philly got some kind of a lock on inappropriate conversational phrases or what?

Josie [TypeKey Profile Page]:

There is an early Seinfeld episode in which, during a massage, he attempts to make conversation with the masseuse by mentioning a recent news story about a child being abducted, or something of that nature. The masseuse gets a panicked look on her face, and screams, "I don't live near here!" The rest of the episode has Jerry trying to reassure her that he would not abduct a child. Hmmm...maybe that episode was on recently???

Lori [TypeKey Profile Page]:

It does seem like I've heard more than my fair share of inappropriate conversational phrases since moving to Philadelphia, yes—although I heard a bunch when I lived in Washington, D.C., too.

Comments

OMG! (my first use of that abbreviation)A dry cleaner or a restuarant? That woman must have been hopped up on the new caffinated, guaranaised, ginseg Budweiser.

Has Philly got some kind of a lock on inappropriate conversational phrases or what?

Posted by: Stephen at February 18, 2005 4:48 PM

There is an early Seinfeld episode in which, during a massage, he attempts to make conversation with the masseuse by mentioning a recent news story about a child being abducted, or something of that nature. The masseuse gets a panicked look on her face, and screams, "I don't live near here!" The rest of the episode has Jerry trying to reassure her that he would not abduct a child. Hmmm...maybe that episode was on recently???

Posted by: Josie [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 18, 2005 5:45 PM

It does seem like I've heard more than my fair share of inappropriate conversational phrases since moving to Philadelphia, yes—although I heard a bunch when I lived in Washington, D.C., too.

Posted by: Lori [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 18, 2005 8:40 PM

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