Suffer Fools and Find a Fedora

Since yesterday:

I went with Brian and associated friends (mainly his, though a few shared, and some that felt as though they were on loan to me) for his birthday dinner. Sub par food, good beer--a wash. My conversation partner for much of the dinner was a woman who managed to grate on my nerves in a profound way. A little background is in order ~6 years ago as I was about ready to go off to Oberlin for round 2, I went with Brian and Mandy Comstock (a friend of his, an aquaintance of mine) to Tee Jay's (a sad version of the Waffle House). It was Mandy's last day in Columbus before trekking out to McGill in Montreal. Needless to say she was a bit tender, leaving all her friends about to move out of the country etc. To all of this information I was oblivious. We began chatting, we began arguing, and I smelled blood. It was bad. She was arguing for some ill-conceived notion of socialist utopia, etc. I just laid into her (immature, I know). So we fought and fought and we're both more than just a bit bullheaded. It ended with neither of us happy, and Brian understandably disappointed in me.

So last night was the first time that Mandy and I were together since then. She has long since forgot about the event...literally. Brian reminded her, and I had to retell the story for her to even pretend to remember it. So that's a good sign.

Last night I am seated across from Mandy (pleasant conversation throughout) and next to MM. MM is currently a paralegal at a law firm that forecloses and reposesses on homes. She is cheery and bouyant because she seems to not know enough to know better. This is not a good pairing. We should not be conversation partners. Brian mentions that he's moving to Wisconsin. She says with genuine and complete disdain, "Why would anyone ever want to live there. It's in the middle of nowhere." I snap my head towards her and ask, "where do you live? Ohio??" She responds, but "what's even in Wisconsin?" Madison, progressives, Milwaukee, Russ Feingold. "Oooohhhhh."

Later she trys to explain how bad it must be to live in Minnesota. "I mean, geez, it's just so cold. And, come on, no one wants to live there. I HAVE to live in a city, so I couldn't live there. Can you imagine?!" I respond, that I, in fact, lived in Minnesota and loved it. I valued the progressive sense of community, its belief in shared values, and that it was a place that sought to embrace quality of life issues--oh and funded arts and non-profits at a staggeringly high level. "I lived in Boston, I think of myself as more of a coast person."

The evening progressed like this. She voted for Nader, but "don't worry it didn't count, I voted absentee." Me: Why do you think your vote didn't count?
Her: I said, I voted absentee. I don't believe that they count those.

Her: "You have to admit Howard Dean was just so angry, all my friends in Boston said so. I mean, come on, it's not like he was electable. No I never saw him speak, but I heard stories about him." "Electable. You have to appeal to the masses. (she;s a politics major and is now lecturing me, doesn't know that I'm the same). See, about 30% of people are Democrats and 30% are Republicans, so the other 40% are in the middle. Democrats have to appeal to those 40%"

I responded with my own statistics, citing a more realistic break down that about 8-10% of the public are swing voters and that tailoring a message to those voters was fool hardy. She said that I was wrong. "It JUST CAN'T BE LIKE THAT. That's not true"

So we can safely say that I was not enjoying this conversation. On the plus side she wants to go into human rights law. I for one think that those suffering from torture and oppression deserve representation from someone confused by everything...that'll make it better. Needless to say, we are not planning on chatting under other non-essential circumstances.

Today: Today I went on two distinctly different missions.

1) I went to the public library to find books for my mom. She's writing papers for seminary on the transition in American religion from Fundamentalism (in the late 1930s) to Modernism (refutation of the inerrancy of the Bible), and a paper on the early roots of Transcendentalism. I strike out big time. Number of books on Transcendentalism at the Westerville Public Library= 0 (you can however get one e-book). 0. Fucking unreal.

2). The other mission was to find myself a fedora. Went to antique stores, vintage shops--nothing. Found an irish short brimmed thing. Nice. Not a fedora. Cary Grant, Harry Truman--you know a fucking fedora. Nothing. Very disappointed. It may be all for the best, I'm still not sure if I have the panache to pull off a fedora. JKD (oh, fashion guru) your thoughts? Others...should a lanky, fashion-timid guy invest in a hat that could have belonged to some guy who "knew" Katherine Hepburn.