[Courses] [Spineful Living, lesson 3: 101 Satisfying Retorts For All Occassion]

[Mary Gardiner]

On Fri, Apr 13, 2007, Carla Schroder wrote:
> I'm bailing out of town for the weekend and don't have time to write an 
> ordinary lesson, so how about everyone share their favorite comebacks and 
> responses for those uncomfortable, annoying, enraging, and so forth 
> occasions? Have fun and I'll see you Monday!

My favourite has been taken offline, sadly.

Backstory: there used to be a blogger called "Cancer, Baby" at
http://cancerbaby.typepad.com/ writing about her battle with ovarian
cancer. She died from her disease in mid-2006, and the blog was taken
down by her family and friends at her request.

Anyway, she had a pretty famous post about those men who walk up to
unknown women (this is usually a men to women pattern) on the street and
say something like "you look so sad! smile! it's not that bad!"

She objected to this because:
 - it assumes that nothing a woman could undergo could be bad enough for
   *frowning*
 - the man saying this is asking a strange woman to change her
   appearance at his whim. Marching up to strangers and commenting on and
   demanding changes in their appearance is regarded as rude, when it's
   not cloaked under "the world is a happy place!"

Anyway, shortly after she learned that her cancer had recurred, and that
she would have to give up on her plans to adopt children with her
husband and that she was probably going to die within 12 months, someone
walked up to her and said "you look so sad! smile! it's not that bad!"

And she said to him something like "actually, I'm dying of cancer, and
your shiny bald pate and appalling halitosis aren't helping me along the
way either."

OK, it's a comeback with limited usefulness, but good nonetheless.

-Mary