"Real women have curves." Not all real women. Just the curvy ones. I realize that women are fed totally contradictory messages about their weight ("Love yourself! But losing a few pounds never hurt!"), but is constant trashing of small women really necessary? Oh yeah, and people really should know that when stores come out with size 00 (leading inevitably to a media freak out about all of us anorexics), those stores have, in all likelihood, just taken every other size down a notch (the "new" 00 is really the old 0, and all the other sizes have gotten bigger, so that she who was a size 6, is now a size 4).
One of the side effects of a prescription sleeping pill, I'm told on the commercial, is drowsiness. Is that really a side effect? Isn't that sort of like saying that a side effect of birth control is difficulty conceiving?
I have discovered why I love my still-new-but-worn-twice-now dress. It's apparently cool enough that men feel compelled to compliment me on it. It must be special if a dude is going to actually utter the words, "I really like you dress," to a total stranger that he's not otherwise hitting on.
Tip for the day: The word "shyster" is thought of in some corners to be anti-semitic (although people apparently disagree about whether this perception is warranted). Just thought I'd put that out there to prevent anyone just tossing around that word in front of a few Jewish colleagues. Because that's not mortifying. At all. Oh wait, it's totally mortifying.
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3 comments:
I love the comments about sleeping pills. However, I must complain about the once a week postings...more please.
This Jew thinks your Jewish colleagues need to lighten up. Not only is the 'anti-semitic' theory not supported by the most authoritative source on English meaning - the OED - but even if it were, the notion that words which once had a prejudicial association ought to be condemned when used in a clearly non-prejudicial context is anti-intellectual and asinine.
I note that not even the American Webster's associates the word "shyster" with anything relating to Jews - unless one believes that there's an intrinsic connection between Jews and shit, since Webster's believes (unlike the OED) the word derives from the German "scheisser". There being no etymological connection, a social ban on the word "shyster" because it has, historically, been used pejoratively in reference to Jews demands a similar social ban on, for instance, the word "lazy" since it has historically been used pejoratively in reference to Mexicans. Banning words is not just an ineffectual way of fighting prejudice, it is affirmatively destructive of knowledge.
Sorry for the rant, but this sort of linguistic vilification is one of my pet peeves. Say shyster with pride! There are a lot of 'em out there.
To be fair, no one was mad at me or, from what I could tell, offended at what I had said since it was clear to them that I didn't know. Then we all learned as a group about the etymology and the disagreement on whether the word has any connotations that are offensive (to anyone other than lawyers). We all learned something. And I think I was probably more embarassed than I needed to be.
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