2024, books, education, Movies, Music, Uncategorized

Excuse Me?

52 Comments

I’m re-reading Fried Green Tomatoes for Sunday – not sure the first time I read it but it was quite some time ago, before the movie.

In the chapter about Stump and his friend Peggy taking a picture of the dead Harold Pinto, Fannie Flagg writes that “Peggy screamed … and Stump squealed like a girl.” I did a double-take and re-wound the CD a bit to make sure I’d heard it correctly. Ticked me off.

That made me think about the end of Sahara, a movie that I adore even though it has so many plot holes that you could strain rice through it, when the Matthew McConaughy characters says “you do throw like a girl”.  This pisses me off every time I watch the movie.  Since it’s the very end of the movie, often I just turn it off at the beginning of that scene.

Guess I have trouble with phrases ending “like a little girl”.  I don’t even like the Bob Dylan song although “she breaks just like a little girl” isn’t quite as derogatory as the usual “like a girl” comment.

Run like a girl, cry like a girl, squeal like a girl, throw like a girl, drive like a girl (one of those Allstate Mayhem commercials) – these all drive me crazy. 

I guess don’t really have anything else to say – just ranting today.

Any words/phrases that make you nuts?  Anything you need to rant about?

52 thoughts on “Excuse Me?”

  1. Here is the uncut poem:

    What All the World Is Made Of

    What are little babies made of, made of?
    What are little babies made of?
    Diapers and crumbs and sucking their thumbs;
    That’s what little babies are made of?

    What are little boys made of, made of?
    What are little boys made of?
    Snips and snails and puppy-dog tails;
    That’s what little boys are made of.

    What are little girls made of, made of?
    What are little girls made of?
    Sugar and spice and everything nice;
    That’s what little girls are made of.

    What are young men made of, made of?
    What are young men made of?
    Sighs and leers and crocodile tears;
    That’s what young men are made of.

    What are young women made of, made of?
    What are young women made of?
    Rings and jings and other fine things;
    That’s what young women are made of.

    What are our sailors made of, made of?
    What are our sailors made of?
    Pitch and tar, pig-tail and scar;
    That’s what our sailors are made of.

    What are our soldiers made of, made of?
    What are our soldiers made of?
    Pipeclay and drill, the foeman to kill;
    That’s what our soldiers are made of.

    What are our nurses made of, made of?
    What are our nurses made of?
    Bushes and thorns and old cow’s horns;
    That’s what our nurses are made of.

    What are our fathers made of, made of?
    What are our fathers made of?
    Pipes and smoke and collars choke;
    That’s what our fathers are made of.

    What are our mothers made of, made of?
    What are our mothers made of?
    Ribbons and laces and sweet pretty faces;
    That’s what our mothers are made of.

    What are old men made of, made of?
    What are old men made of?
    Slippers that flop and a bald-headed top;
    That’s what old men are made of.

    What are old women made of, made of?
    What are old women made of?
    Reels, and jeels, and old spinning wheels;
    That’s what old women are made of?

    What are all folks made of, made of?
    What are all folks made of?
    Fighting a spot and loving a lot,
    That’s what all folks are made of.

    cries like a girl, throws like a girl.screams like a girl, breaks up just like a little girl are all enough to make you cringe but it comes from the time and place where a good nigger and an uppity nigger come from so its obviously just a bunch of historically consistently blind to the world around them folks who swallow and regurgitate things without taking into consideration the whole picture

    but just like a woman does hold a special spot in my heart even though bob shows his chauvinist pig 1960 side

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  4. No rants today. I think I’ve used my quota for the month. I get annoyed by grammar and pronunciation errors. Yeah, yeah, I know, the old man grammar police. But phrases like “I seen her . . .””. . . step foot in that room.” (Should be “set foot”); nuke-u-lar instead of nuke-lee-ar.

    In general, I mourn the relaxation and casualization of so much of life. Slovenly clothes as a fashion statement. Wearing pajamas in public, and sweatpants in public when not exercising. Intentionally torn clothes (jeans). No one dresses in a manner that pays respect to the deceased at a funeral. Not quite so bad for a memorial, but come on, folks, put a little thought into how others perceive you.

    I also get annoyed by our celebration of stupid behavior; ignorant people used to entertain us for monetary game (reality shows of all sorts). Excellence, intelligence, and achievement is not celebrated nearly as much as mediocrity, boorishness, and being “tough.”

    I guess I did have a mini-rant in me today. 😉

    Chris in Owatonna

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  5. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I spent my time early on insisting to my parents that I wished I had been a boy because they had more fun. I read tim’s poem and I know why! Stereotypes, shame and repression ruled personal identity. Very Puritan. Fantasizing that I was Annie Oakley, riding horses and shooting bad guys, was my outlet. I rode all over our little town on my stick horse and with my six-shooters as Annie.

    The phrases “thinking “out of the box”, as well as “someone moved my cheese”, both holdovers from corporate movements, just irritate me to no end. The initial intentions were great but they because meaningless as corporate culture resists any change. Eyeroll.

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        1. No. I was very young when my dad told me he was disappointed in me because I wasn’t a boy. He said, “You were supposed to have been a boy.” His disappointment in my “failure” was permanent. When I was very young and my brothers were born, they had all the fun, and were not looked upon as failures. That was when I wished I was a boy. As I got older, I realized that it wasn’t my fault and that I was fine the way I was. My dad never told me that, I did. My mom didn’t take my side. Whatever my dad said was what she agreed with. No, I didn’t want a penis. I wanted acceptance and love.

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        3. Well, I must admit that as a 4 year old I was really disappointed I couldn’t pee standing up. I remember trying and being quite embarrassed

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      2. Gosh, Krista, I’m so sorry. What a horrible thing for a father to say to a little girl, or any parent, really, to say to any child of either sex. Glad you figured it out on your own.

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  6. Drives me crazy when people don’t check and see (important!) emails that I’ve sent… then I remember that they’ve moved on to texting instead. So then I try and put all that in a tiny text… sometimes I just say “Check your email.” (Would like to add expletive in there.)
    Email works great for me –

    can’t we all just agree to be on email?? : )

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    1. I get sooooo much email. I don’t think I lose any, but I’m always afraid to delete it if it contains something I might need to refer to at some future point in time. For me, texting is much quicker, and I don’t feel too bad about deleting a quick text, especially if it’s a date and time, or an address, or some kind of confirmation. I’ve ended up with an email filing system, which helps. Unfortunately, once I’ve filed something, I don’t look back. Sorry… I like texting.

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      1. Seriously? I get that FB isn’t for everyone, but I don’t get why you would object to others communicating that way. Why do you?

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        1. I don’t. I was responding to Barbara’s suggestion that everyone (only) correspond on email. I was pointing out that there were multiple venues of communication that people chose, as they preferred, and I knew that Barbara was often on Facebook from comments she has made.

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        2. That makes sense. I was trying to figure out which remark you were responding to. I’m such a clutz at texting that I rarely do it. I’m also damn near hopeless at navigating my iPhone. People who know me know that texting me is not a reliable way to get ahold of me; days go by where I don’t check my phone. For me, email works much better.

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  7. Having another of those “wow” moments.

    I’m also in the middle of reading The Dutch House and just now came across this:

    “Her hair fell forward and covered her face for an instant, so she tossed her head back. Like a girl, I thought, and then remembered Maeve was a girl.”

    (Italics in that quote belong to the author, Ann Patchett, not to me.)

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  8. Pride. It’s a word and a concept that gets used so frequently and in so many contexts and so sloppily that it doesn’t seem to mean anything. I would say that “pride” as an attitude and emotion is the counterpoint to shame. In the instance of Gay Pride, that stance against traditions of imposed shame seems appropriate.

    Pride can also signal achievement against adversity. But I have a box of crackers that on the back says “Proudly grown and baked in the USA.” Whence the pride? Was shame ever involved? Was it a struggle to bake them in the USA?

    Yard signs in my neighborhood sometimes proclaim, “Proud
    Parent of a (usually some private school) Student”. Where’s the achievement in that? And when a bumper sticker announces, “I’m Proud of My Honor Student” isn’t that, in a way, claiming a kind of ownership or participation in the student’s achievement? It’s like saying “my child has done well because of my high standards”. I would prefer “I Esteem My Honor Student”.

    I used to think that the bumper stickers proclaiming “Proud to be an American” were ridiculous. If you happen to be born here, being an American requires no effort. And I would have said there’s no particular reason to be ashamed of being an American. But I’m reconsidering that.

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  9. Propaganda. Spam. Hackers. Dishonesty. Unimaginative people. Intentionally uneducated people. Unnecessary noise. Unnecessary light. Unbelievably huge, gas-guzzling American-made pickup trucks with LED headlights in my rear window at night. Litter in a sensitive landscape that displays the insensitivity of a previous hiker. I could keep going, but I’d rather consider the juncoes and chickadees outside my window.

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  10. Me too! One side effect of my cataract surgery (multi focal lenses) is seeing triple haloes around streetlights, traffic lights, and headlights at night. Those big trucks with LED headlights are especially annoying.

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  11. My real “rant.”
    200th anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony just passed. The Berlin Celebration Concert of 1989 gives me hopeful “Resistance.”

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  12. The Calvinist in my has trouble with mentions of “deserving” something, anything, good OR bad. I really try to rest in grace.
    On good days, I can.

    However, I no longer rant about it, which must be a grace to the folks around me.

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  14. Matt Gaetz is DT’s choice for Attorney General, and Tulsi Gabbarts for Director of National Intelligence. I wonder what position he’ll think of for the My Pillow guy? Buckle up folks, interesting and terrifying times lie ahead.

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      1. The GOPsenators who chose not to impeach 4 years ago will now be faced with the consequences of what they did not do–the cowards have to deal with 45 now.

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    2. One site, electoral-vote.com, had this to say about Gaetz:

      “Gaetz’ confirmation is by no means assured. A number of senators were shocked to hear the nomination. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has expressed concern. In this case, that almost certainly means a “no” vote. When Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) was asked about Gaetz, he dodged the question. He might also be a “no” vote. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) rolled his eyes when asked about Gaetz. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) declined to comment. When you’ve lost Tom Cotton, you have lost. The confirmation hearing will be extremely angry and fraught. Gaetz might well go down, which would be a huge embarrassment to Trump. Of course, Trump should have checked this out with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and other friendly senators to get an idea in advance how the senators would react, but that’s not his way.

      Interestingly, Gaetz has already resigned his seat in the House. This is very unusual. Typically, a nominee keeps their current job as an insurance policy until they’ve been approved for the new job. That should hold doubly true for someone who might very well fail to be confirmed. Was the ethics investigation into Gaetz’ behavior about to go public with something damning? Does he want to run for governor, unencumbered, but without his opponents saying he quit on his constituents for no reason? Something else? Only Matt Gaetz knows for sure. “

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