Letters to the Editor
Gwool
Published Letters: 366 Editor's Choice: 40
-
Flounder ....
[Read the article: My vegan friend insists I justify myself]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As Flounder said in National Lampoon's Animal House, "This is gonna be great!!!!!!"
I cannot wait to see the loony tune replies to this one. Vegans are pretty extreme, so I imagine the militancy of replies will be pretty intense.
I have a few old friends from college, though my connection is not as far back as the late 60s. Four out of five roomates have remained extremely close, and one has been more and more removed.
The reasons for that removal remain largely self inflicted. But, we have also observed that some of those more overbearing features of the individual have worsened with time. We had it out a bit at a recent dinner party of the five of us and our wives when the debating style was dominating dinner. We basically told the individual to shut the fuck up, that it was ruining the meal and we did not want to listen to it.
Egos were bruised, but it got us through the meal.
This vegan friend, if truly militant, might need a similar dope slapping. There's an old adage of live and let live. If she's a true friend she'll accept you warts and all. If she won't, then what kind of friend is she in the first place.
As one of the aforementioned college friends said to me one day, he is does not want to take on any new friends. With work, family and the rest "he's full." He doesn't want to add any new friends; he doesn't want to go through the game of getting to know someone or worry that what he says offends a relative new friend. He's full. To do that would mean something would have to give, and, with his luck, it would be remember his wife's birthday or to pick his kid up from hockey practice.
If you met this friend in 1968, you, too, may be "full." It could be that putting up with this vegan's shit is just something you do not have the room to handle. If that is the case, then make a new friend and toss the vegan over the side.
Life's to short to listen to unsolicited sermonettes.
-
Password Protection?
[Read the article: My husband read my journal]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know, but Cary's advice to lock up one's journals and password protect one's email accounts from one's spouse had me doing the RCA Dog look.
I mean, what the fuck?
The solution to a trust issue about the way we feel towards our spouse is to make sure we keep ourselves locked away from our spouse?
I have never figured that one out. I have been married 24 years, which is 168 in dog years, and a couple of them have been REAL dogs. We have our email accounts and we also know each other's accounts so we can check our emails for one another on the fly. All accounts are joint. A lake house from my family is in my name. The primary residence in my wife's name while the mortgage is held jointly. This has been done for asset balancing purposes in the event of death, but it also reflects reality in the event of divorce.
So this honeymooner had concerns about her spouse. So what. After twenty four years we can peel the paint off the walls impersonating Burton and Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, and that is when we are being nice to one another.
You live with someone long enough you are going to know everything about them whether you want to our not. If you found out some secret from long ago, you more than likely get pissed it's been withheld rather than think, "huh, I never knew that."
That kind of shit might be cute when you are still in a loving scenario absent teenagers trying to pit you against one another. Now we look at each other more akin to the way Peter Sellers looked at his Oriental house boy Kato in his Pink Panther movies.
Friends with benefits? We're mortal enemies with benefits.
We don't need anymore fucking surprises. We need to know each other's email accounts in case we have to figure out when to pick up a kid at lacrosse practice. If I find out my wife thinks I'm a piece of shit, I can check the date of the email, add 48 hours and know her period is going to start.
If I find out she has a secret lover I will simply have to do a background check to see if he can assume the payments before a head for the nearest fucking exit.
Really Cary. Password protection? That might fly for newlyweds, but grizzled veterans are too shell shocked for such cutesy protections. I've watched episiotomies. We've cleaned puke together. We've hurled hurtful things at one another as if it was sport. What secrets?
All we're trying to do know is outlive one another so we can enjoy what we amassed while we are still continent and capable of engaging in sexual congress with a willing partner.