“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers,” Dorothy Parker once wrote, “the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style.The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” Read more
Yelled at a woman in the grocery store two days ago. I’d been standing in line with my cart at the demarcated line behind the cart ahead of me. For some reason, a woman at the next checkout decided to back out and head toward me. I politely directed her attention to the marks on the floor. She kept rolling closer; I pointed to the marks again. She kept coming toward my right side. Finally, I held my hand up like a traffic cop and boomed out: “Stop! You are getting too close to me! Back away!” Yes, I actually used those words. She gave me this surprised look, and murmured, “Oh! Sorry!” and then backed up. Would I have done that Before? Hell no. Was there another way I could have handled it? Maybe, maybe not. She was not practicing social distancing when she should have. I freaked out.
I don’t know what the answers are – it’s my first pandemic. Read more