One of your songs came on the radio, and I immediately changed the channel.
I mean no disrespect. I’m just not a fan.
I know, I know: I’m an American, so I’m supposed to love you and your music.
I don’t. I can live without hearing one of your songs ever again.
There is a whole list of singers/bands who fall into that category for me:
Bruce Hornsby and The Range
Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
The Grateful Dead
Chicago
Joe Cocker
Don Henley
The Cars
George Thorogood
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
Steely Dan
The Eagles
The Doobie Brothers
It’s a theme I’ll call “Americana.”
But Cheap Trick? Boston? Blue Öyster Cult? Hell yes.
Look. Listen. I can’t explain my taste.
I can live without “folksy” folks too:
4 Non Blondes
Indigo Girls
Bob Dylan
Good LORD: I cannot STAND Bob Dylan.
I’m sorry. I feel guilty. I feel like I have to turn in my “American” card (which, by the way, I have been tempted to do by things other than music).
I’m very sorry my public reply to your public question to AITA on Twitter upset you so much that you blocked me.
I’ve never been blocked before — not to my knowledge, anyway.
Maybe you block people regularly, so you don’t remember our exchange.
(And if you do block people regularly, perhaps you should stay off Twitter. Or stop commenting on tweets from popular accounts.)
To remind you, @AITA_reddit posted a selection involving a grown woman whose teenaged boys were mortified by her One Direction decor in one of the bathrooms.
As a mother of teenaged boys, and as someone who loves One Direction, I was interested in the post and fully on her side (as most people were).
But there’s always one person who wants to make it awkward.
That person was you.
It seemed like quite a leap from liking a band to being a pedophile. I’m shocked 584 people implied they agreed with you.
I was compelled to respond. (Because of course I was.) But I wasn’t the only one.
1. Target sold these candles.
2. I guarantee you that most moms of teenaged boys are not into thinking sexually about teenaged boys. They are gross.
3. Yes, I know some women do. That’s gross too. And, thankfully, not that common.
I think you are too sensitive to be on a public forum. You also seem to be projecting.
I am a middle-aged woman who thinks Harry Styles is very cute. He does not meet the age requirement (half my age plus seven) for naughtiness, and also, HE’S A CELEBRITY I’LL NEVER MEET.
Harry IS dating an older woman in the age-gap allowance (Olivia Wilde), so good for her.
(Side note on the age thing: I’m very excited to know that I can date all those hot middle-aged men when I’m 80. Cougaring FTW!)
When my aforementioned teenaged boys were young, they liked to watch iCarly. So I watched too. I thought Freddie Benson was adorable, but I did not want to sleep with him.
Now?
Hello, Freddie!
But no. Still not in the acceptable range. (Also, I’m married. Hi, Eddie!)
My point?
You can think someone is cute and not want to groom them for sex.
Just because a grown woman likes a boy band does not mean she is a pedophile.
I’m sorry if that’s hard for you to believe. And that, sadly, says more about your life.
I’m sorry my response upset you enough for you to block me. You didn’t need to worry, though: I had not planned on having any subsequent interaction with you.
May your future responses to @AITA_reddit bring you more peace, joy and solidarity than this one.
This guy. Rep. Barry Fleming. UGH. He’s from the Georgia city that has the Laurel & Hardy Museum. His efforts would be a comedy if his fellow Republicans weren’t serious.
Dear Georgia GOP,
Hey, y’all! Georgia voter here. What you are doing with your omnibus elections bill is ridiculous. I know you are upset that President Biden won the state in November and Senators Ossoff/Warnock won their seats in January, but you can’t just change the rules because you lost.
Except you can, because that’s what you do (*cough* gerrymandering *cough*).
Stop being sore losers. Just mobilize your base and register new voters. You know, like Stacey Abrams did.
I’ve voted in every election. I voted absentee in November because, you know, PANDEMIC. I took a picture of myself at the ballot dropbox because I know how y’all like to pretend ballots are being returned by others. 🙄
Forcing a voter to make a copy of his/ her/their ID or get a witness for a signature IS NOT GOING TO STOP FRAUD.
Reducing early voting IS NOT GOING TO STOP FRAUD.
Eliminating no-excuse absentee voting IS NOT GOING TO STOP FRAUD.
It just makes voting a hassle for everyone.
Even the Georgia Secretary of State — a man in YOUR PARTY — says y’all lost because of unfounded conspiracy theories, not because of fraud.
Stop making it harder for people to vote. You should be reducing barriers. But I guess you aren’t interested in a fair fight. You want to rig the system.
You have no idea the joy I feel when one of you contacts me to tell me something I said or did had an impact on you. This is why I started teaching in the first place: to make a difference.
I flourished under professors like Dr. Brightman and Dr. Taylor. I wanted to be the same kind of advocate for learning and growth.
Or even just make you question the existence of certain words.
Susan, you made my day by sending me this:
I still hate those words (and others). If anyone catches me using them, that person should take me to the hospital as I’ve clearly had a stroke.
Ken recently told me that he never closes with “Best” in an email because of me. What’s my problem with “Best?” It can be used as an adjective or an adverb, but it has to modify something. So I always think to myself, “Best what? Best regards? Best wishes? Best in show?”
So thank you for taking my classes and letting me mold you into critical duplicates.
And keep sending me little anecdotes of my permeating influence (or put them in the comments below). It fills me with glee.
Best in show,
Dr. Beth
*”We don’t need no education,” interestingly enough, is a double negative. So what Pink Floyd actually said was that we need education. So Pink Floyd was right.
Thanks to my last post, I now know of many people who have experienced frozen shoulder. All of them said that physical therapy is the only thing that expedites healing.
So I know you are doing your job, but you are so MEAN. So mean.
Within 10 minutes of meeting you, you pulled my arm way above my head, and counted to 10. Twice. Despite me squirming in pain.
I wanted to yell:
My arm doesn’t bend that way right now, lady. Stop trying to wrench it off!
But instead, I wept quietly.
You said:
I should give you to Michelle (the other therapist). She doesn’t care about tears. I’m the nice one.
You are the nice one? Shudder.
To be honest, the physical therapist I had before my insurance changed (join me for a future TED Talk on that nightmare) was too nice. I didn’t see any improvement in range of motion. But I chalked that up to being in the “freezing” stage.
I do see an improvement in just a couple of days with you. Part of it could be that I’m religiously doing the exercises because I am scared of you.
I know you’ve seen your share of people with my condition.
I know you know what you are doing.
I know this is what I need.
I also know that I don’t want to ever see you again.
But I’ll see you Monday.
Your terrified victim respectful client,
Beth
*If you don’t immediately start singing “Jump Around,” something is wrong with you.
**This is her name. She’s Brazilian. She is merciless.
Observe and report 