Yikes.

So. I was at the library today, helping some good comrades with their prep for our upcoming Bartky exam. While doing this, a rather loud pair sat right behind me. I used my incredible hearing (which functions even better when you are speaking in full voice five feet from my ear) and ability to split focus, and I listened shamelessly to a conversation between the chick with a cool accent and the guy that appeared to be the epitome of stupid in Abercrombie.

The word that caught my ear was Pushkin. Not something college students are likely to talk about. For the few the few brief minutes that I listened it was rather painful. She turned out to be a Russian. She was asking him questions and trying to find if he knew anything about Russian culture or history.

He, working his very hardest to shame the American peoples, admitted to never having heard of, Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogol, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Trotsky, and apparently he thought Lenin was a member of the Beatles. He was also under the impression that the evils perpetrated by the government of the USSR were myth, which impression she was quick to correct.

I was appalled. Thankfully our study group broke up shortly thereafter and I was released from further motivation to turn around and slap him.

He was at least my age. What on earth was he doing with his life to this point???

Comments

  1. MaggieMarch 26, 2010 at 12:30 AM

    You've got to be kidding me. What was he doing in a library, anyway?

    ReplyDelete
  2. PatrickMarch 26, 2010 at 2:59 PM

    The poor dear was probably lost.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BretMarch 28, 2010 at 1:32 PM

    I could only imagine that he wound up there in search for the local bar, sadly. Or maybe he was plastered, and assumed that he was IN the bar? A terrible case, either way.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lamp Post

Lamp Post, Aged 5, died earlier this afternoon when some privileged white girl ran him over. Lamp Post was fond of the outdoors and was especially good with dogs. According to those who knew Lamp, he was "a beacon in the darkness." It is as yet unknown what caused the accident which ended Lamp's bright future, but locals are suggesting it might have been deliberate. Fort Wayne Police say they believe the accident to be tied to illegal drag-racing, but are withholding all further comment pending a formal investigation.
Read more

To Every Hobo a Suit...or Not

A sad reality has struck me. I have known it for a long time, but only now do I actually feel the enormity of what it was I saw. Men do not wear suits, and those few who can be found in a suit, really do not wear them very well. The suits I see have rolled collars, gaping necks, puckered backs, strained buttons. Men seldom make the mistake of choosing a suit that is too large; they but suits that cling to them in the hope that it will be slimming. They don them in this shameless style because they do not understand the marvelous metamorphosing power of a decent suit; the power to broaden your shoulders and make your gut appear, not bloated, but as part and parcel of your steady, consequential, masculinity. Last week I fitted at least four gentlemen of more than forty years who claimed never to have purchased a suit. All of them ultimately elected the cheapest available option. All seemed chagrined over having to buy a suit, and almost seemed to wear the fact that they had never worn
Read more

Tired, not Sleepy.

*Danger* *Point of no return* I am at war. There is no enemy except the one within, and my task is not to fight him, but to keep him disciplined. The most annoying thing about this battle is that, in my everyday surroundings, the longer and better that I hold my discipline the more it becomes a burden. It is abnormal in the eyes of society, and abnormality is a grievous sin. I will not comply and my non-compliance is often misconstrued as dysfunction. I do not have a girlfriend. There is a lot of weight in that phrase. Healthy American males of my age are expected to form romantic attachments. If they do not form any attachments of this kind, it is often thought that 1) We are not sufficiently attractive, or, 2) We are merely anti-social. What on earth could possibly be wrong with me? Why is that child unable/unwilling to attract a mate? Has he been gelded? Is he afraid??? My pride would just as soon answer them by doing as they expect. What better way to shut them up than to give up a
Read more