Rachelisms - Extremely lame excuses for not doing your homework, i.e. "I meant to do my part of the group project that's due today, but there was this party I just had to go to, and I got back at 4:00." The Rachel who inspired this one was not the one I knew in DC or the one I worked with in Taiwan, so if you knew me during either of those periods, it's not who you think. Interesting, though, that I knew these three different yet like-named women in the space of less than six years and they were all incredibly irritating in one way or another.
Emphasis added, because today's post does concern "the one I knew in DC". I haven't been in touch with her since 1998, so I doubt she'll stumble across this, but I'll apologize in advance if any feelings are hurt. (Apolgies as well to the numerous other women I've known by that name who were wonderful people! There have been many more than three.)
In retrospect, "incredibly irritating" is an exaggeration about Rachel-of-DC, but she certainly had trying qualities as a friend. To make a long story short, she was one of those people you think of as a good friend at one point, only to discover before long that, despite your best efforts, she really never knew you all that well. We had (and I still do have) several mutual friends who could back me up on that. In any case, one night several of us were on our way out the door for an evening out. Another of our friends said something that amused me (regrettably I can't recall what, exactly), and I responded that he was reminding me of a character in a novel.
Then it was Rachel's turn to speak up. "Hey Dave," she asked me, "You know what novel you remind me of?" She said it in that tone of voice people tend to use when they're sure they've come up with a witty rejoinder nobody else has thought of.
"Catcher in the Rye," I responded in that tone of voice people tend to use in response to what somebody else thinks is a witty rejoinder, when in reality it's anything but that.
"Oh, you've heard that one before, have you?"
Why yes, yes I had. I suspect anybody who has ever felt disaffected in the past 60 years or so has. Which explains both why I had heard it before, and why people like Rachel tend to be surprised that it's not an original thought. They're also the kind of people who find that book "depressing" (a matter of opinion, to be fair; but it's anything but depressing to anyone who's been in that frame of mind before) or who think it's 200 pages of "I hate everything" (which just isn't true). I will admit that nearly everything I've heard about JD Salinger's life since he wrote it does sound rather depressing. But I'm guessing he didn't see it that way, since it was his choice. And hey, more power to him.
All of which is just my anecdotal way of saying "thank you and RIP".
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