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Odd Couple

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It’s like one of those rumors you heard in high school. Jupiter really likes Venus. I mean really, really likes her. See how he does everything he can to get closer?

Jupiter - blotchy lovestruck loser

For, like, the whole past week he’s just been hanging around. If you catch a glimpse of her, look nearby. There he is, looming! Weird. Do you think she likes him? If there are two planets that are NOT going to get together, it’s them.

She’s so small and hot, and he’s huge! They say he’s incredibly gaseous. And people who watch him closely say he’s so moon eyed around her. Or maybe those are actual moons. Hard to tell.

Venus - electrified hotness

Stranger things have happened. Venus and Jupiter will appear to get quite close today, but really, there’s absolutely no chance they’ll ever actually be an item. Two reasons:

1) If you grew up with the same straight-line map of the solar system I saw, you know that Venus is off to the right, between us and the gigantic flaming sun. And Jupiter is far left – out past the asteroid belt and halfway to Uranus. They’re simply too far apart. We shouldn’t even be able to see them in the same piece of sky. Don’t these planets know their left from their right? Didn’t they learn the chart?

2) In Mythology, Jupiter and Venus are a father/daughter pair. Ugh. I know those Gods and Goddesses were a little indiscriminate, but come on. There’s a whole universe out there. Pick somebody more appropriate!

Tell us about the Oddest Couple you know.

59 thoughts on “Odd Couple”

    2. i thought initially that was an odd mix but lyle is so intelligent that to win julia with something other than studliness seemed like a logical move. if anyone knows how shallow beauty is it should be julia.. maybe thats where my theory fell down.

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    3. I was in University Hospital the week that Lyle and Julia were on the cover of People magazine when they got married. I thought recovery from kidney donation would be a perfect time to do some light reading. I never managed to get past about the first paragraph, not light enough for my anesthetized gray matter. Watching construction of the Weisman, viewable and puzzling through my window, was closer to what I was capable of. I was disappointed when Lyle and Julia split. I like them both (especially Lyle and his Large Band) and was hoping they could beat the odds.

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  2. Good morning to all. I can think of some well know odd couples including that famous one, Oscar and Filex, from the Odd Couple show. I am having trouble thinking of other people who could be called odd couples.

    Two middle aged friends of mine who were not married got together and I thought that might be a good match. Both are very indenpendent people, each in their own unique way. In the end they turned out to not be a match. Many years ago I knew a kind of geeky guy who hooked up with a rather attractive young woman. I don’t know it that couple stayed together.

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  3. Dharma & Greg… remember that one? I keep looking for it in the video store because I never actually saw the first epiosde showing how in the world they got together.

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  4. The time change has really taken a toll on baboons. Where is everyone? Time’s a wasting! Our terrier and our late cat, Albert, were a pretty odd couple. The dog just loved grooming Albert, who would sit fairly patiently while Maggie licked out his ears and nibbled his fur for nonexistent fleas. He also tolerated being dragged by his collar on the laminate floor. In return, Albert always napped close by, but not too close, to Maggie. When he thought no one was looking, he would rub and mark Maggie along her snout. If we asked “Where’s Albert?”, Maggie would searching until she found him.

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  5. Actually, in the best-known version of her origin myth, Aphrodite/Venus is born from sea foam (you just look up for yourself where the foam came from, I’m not going there), and could technically be considered Zeus/Jupiter’s great-aunt or the like. But yeah, the Greek gods were the poster children for indiscriminate, which is probably why the whole theory of “myth as allegory” got started, to make the stories a little more palatable to the Victorian mind.

    When I look at odd pairings, I usually find that the characters complement each other, filling in traits the other lacks, so I stop seeing them as odd at all. But, Kira Nerys and Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? That’s nothing but odd.

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    1. right up there with Deanna Troi and Warf (who IIRC were at least really good friends in RL), I mean, an empath and someone who runs on high octane emotion? oi.

      And Aphrodite’s “official” spouse, Hephaestus, was in some tellings her brother and they were VERY ill suited.

      Looking back on it, there are a number of “odd” couples in my family tree. I know how they met, but what made them think that making a life together would be a good idea is a bit of a mystery, and yet they did it and made it stick.

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  6. I was briefly part of an odd couple when I had a date with an extremely attractive woman during my college days. We knew each other through a political group in which we were active. We were not close friends and didn’t become close friends. She was a very nice and very intelligent person as well as being a beauty. Why didn’t that lead me to chase after her? Somehow we both knew that one date was enough.

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  7. I am pretty sure that a lot of folks thing of Husband and I as an odd couple – he is extremely introverted, kind of a homebody, and a competitive bridge player. I am none of these things – especially the last in the list (I am a disaster in any but the most friendly of social bridge games). On the other hand, having one introvert and one extrovert in the pair means that as often as not, Husband stays home with Daughter when there is a social event to attend, saving money on babysitter costs. And then there is that whole “gal who likes spicy food marries guy who can’t eat onions or peppers mess.” 😉

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    1. Yes, Anna – Husband and I are also an odd pair at times, and another example of opposites attract – more of that introvert-extrovert thing, plus attention paid to a wildly dvergent spectrum of details…

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      1. Oh my yes – the divergent attention to details…one thing Husband and I share is that we are both “clutterers,” in slightly different ways – but how we deal with that is quite different. 😛

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    4. John McCain is both a hero who stood up to incredible torture and an independent thinker who has often (not always) taken idiosyncratic stands on controversial issues. I am no fan of the man, but both of these statements can easily be proven. Palin not only is not an independent thinker, she is not a thinker of any sort! And as for her courage under fire, just look at the way she bailed out of the governor’s chair when the adulation turned to carping criticism. Birds of a feather? I think not!

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      1. I think McCain as a politician is one thing, and McCain as a war hero is another. I give all due respect to him for what he did and endured in service to our country. As a politician, I think he lost his way even before that 2008 presidential bid. He lost a certain cohesiveness and consistency in his worldview, and gave in too much to the Washington insider culture. By the time he got Palin involved, he really had become (in public, anyway) the same type of politician that she was : hawkish without full regard for the consequences of such a position, hypocritical with regard to government spending and earmarks, and very rigid in terms of ideology. He became the very type of politician he used to rail against, ran nasty smear campaigns full of falsehoods, and focused on image over ideas. It was a fall from greater heights for him, and I would argue that the very fact he thought Palin was a worthy running mate is proof that he wasn’t, and isn’t, the man he once was.

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      2. I grant that that what you say is all true. McCain was courageous enough to stand up to torture and yet weak enough to be talked into betraying most of the positive values of his personality. I think you and I are applying different standards. I give the man credit for what he has been able to do at his best; you deny him credit for not being consistent to the values in his life you most admire. I’m not sure which of us is most “fair” in our view of him. My main point is that Palin never was as admirable as McCain at his best, and thus is not really “birds of a feather.” But even she has shown a certain kind of originality and she displayed some kind of courage as a mother.

        OT: I hope you understand that you, doubleyooteeeff, are invited to contribute a lead blog and question for this group. You haven’t been around long enough to absorb our eccentricities, but you are far more than skillful enough as a writer to step in as a guest who gets the conversation started. If you indicate an interest, Dale will supply an e-mail address to which you could mail a proposed blog story and question.

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      3. I agree that we’re both seeing the same thing, but through different lenses. And I agree that, at least McCain has a record of honorable military and civic service under his belt, which Palin never had and never will, so I’ll acknowledge there are some significant differences between them, despite the fact that they both seem fairly odious to me now. FWIW, I don’t hate Sarah Palin as a person, just as a personality. I can’t help but have a certain amount of empathy for her, particularly because she’s a woman and a mom. She just represents a lot of things that are so, SO wrong about politics and government in America today, so I tend not to give her all that much of a break. 😉

        And OT right back atcha: I appreciate the suggestion very much. I am worried that, with so much of a history here, I might be duplicating something that’s already been discussed, so maybe if I can take a spin through at least the recent past, post-wise, I can come up with an idea that won’t feel like deja vu to you hard-core Babooners!

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      4. mccain just fell victim to the gop. you can be the best person in the world but if you dont want to drink the koolaid there is no place for you in the program. he found out how ruthless they were in the previous attempts with the lies and deceit and realized if he was ever to get in he had to play along which at the same time voided all the integrity he had going as a hero of any sort. palin, a joke, the michelle bachman, handsome bible toting gun carrying babe who will state no taxes off the notes she write on the back of her hand. the gop is a piece of work but they are a piece of work who regularly kick butt over our correct minded fair and equal treatment philosophy. i hate the compromise formula obama has developed. hopefully we will get some card playing advisers in the mix to help learn how to turn it into a bit less of a travesty.

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  9. I’m a huge Muppets geek, but I’m the first to say that there have been some odd pairings within their little tribe. Putting Kermit and Miss Piggy together is already a bit strange, but then when you look at Gonzo and Camilla…um, probably best not to contemplate that one too much.

    And, in real life, Woody Allen and Soon-Yi. Still gives me the heebie jeebies, I’m afraid to say. *shudder*

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    1. wait until he starts dating her daughter. he doesnt appear a messed up little neurotic for films sake, we always knew everything he was doing was autobiographical didnt we?

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  12. Morning–

    I can’t come up with much. I’ve knew a couple when I was growing up and she talked so much he couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but they later divorced. I guess he had more to say than she thought.
    There’s another couple that we all kinda looked at askew and thought ‘really?’ but they’re doing fine.
    I think there’s a fine line between an ‘odd couple’ and having different personalities, eh? My wife is more random abstract than me, and some of our best friends are the same but in that couple he’s the RA one. We all make a good team but I wouldn’t want to live with him. 🙂

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  13. OT – there’s a free wine tasting this Thursday and Friday at Top Ten Wine & Spirits in Woodbury. 6:30-8:30 both days. I’m planning on going Friday – I have a volunteer shift on Thursday. Any metro-area baboons care to join me?

    – 100 different wines to sample
    – at least 20% off on all wine in the store

    9887 Norma Lane.

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  15. It is difficult to call a relationship odd if it is a love relationship, especially one that has endured. I don’t think it is true that “opposites attract” in love, yet sometimes people who are highly dissimilar find each other and learn that the combination of their personalities allows both to flourish in ways not possible were they to live apart. An extrovert can marry an introvert, with one partner happy to make all the noise and the other partner relieved to be freed of the expectation of talking.

    One of my best friends was happily married for 61 years to a man quite unlike herself. Marilynn was serious to a fault, reform-minded, bookish, shy with any group of people and given to dark philosophical speculations. Gene was genial, funny, easy with people, philosophically shallow and not driven to improve the world. These two people obviously recognized they were like a cat and a dog, and yet each found the other fascinating partly because he or she was different. They found interests they could share, and they had an enviably good marriage for six decades until emphysema ended the relationship.

    Obviously, we could go on to talk about countless other aspects of personality where differences somehow balance out. It cannot be expected to happen, for generally we prefer people much like ourselves, but when dissimilarities hit that mysterious compensating balance it can only be explained by the love, the unlimited magic of love.

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    1. I find that when two people have some very basic underlying beliefs, goals, or world view in common, all the other differences can be worked out.

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      1. You hit the nail on the head, Barbara! Those deeper similarities, if they’re strong enough, can really help you see past all the little differences. Not to say those little things can’t also be annoying sometimes, but you do recognize that, in the whole scheme of things, they don’t amount to all that much.

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  17. Just one more comment on John McCain: he’s the only Republican who spoke out against Limbaugh’s vulgar 3-day tirade. The rest of the lot remains intimidated by this gasbag.

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  18. i admire the way you all seem to think if there is a deep set of common beliefs then the odd couple thing doesnt count… i for one think im in for an odd couple relationship where ever i turn because if i found another person who was not totally in favor of felixing up my act to a point where toleration was tolerable, i would owe you a dollar. my first wife had me doing my jumping through hoops ditty until she realized what a lost cause it was and bailed. it took about a week to feel the relief of not getting hammered for doing it wrong then a year or two later i met a smiling version of my first wife wait a minute my first wife smiled when i met her too, and i ended up in an oscar and felix go round for a second and final time. there more to life than finding yes men but a little harmony is thing to shoot for right.
    sam and dianne on cheers
    marilyn and arthur miller
    pierre trudeau and bianca jagger
    ernie and bert or course
    bunny rabbit and mr moose

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  20. Took me a minute to get ‘DJ’s of Yore’ out of “djsof yore”! Ha! But you’re excused Jacque. Glad to have you back on the trail.

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