September 20th, 2004

Filed under:
Mixed Bag
9 Comments »

Overheard in a Long Queue at the 7-11

This young woman, clad in business wear and Lisa Loeb glasses, makes a call on her cell phone:

Guess what? My boss got back from vacation and gave me a raise. I know. And he’s going to pay for all my schooling. Isn’t that great? (Pause.) Do you want to come over tonight? (Pause.) No, no, that’s okay. I’ve got lots of reading to do. Yeah. Okay. Bye.

There were several young men in the line-up as well. The romantic in me really wanted one of them to step up to the plate and say, “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. I don’t know who that loser was on the phone, but let me take you out to dinner and celebrate.” And even if she had turned him down, even if that had been her fiancee on the phone, she would have walked out of that 7-11 a little happier.

I suppose I could have done it, counting on the fact that I’d get rejected. If she did accept, it might be awkward when I explained that I was only asking to make her feel better.

Comments: 9 Responses so far

Jen
September 20th, 2004
6:30 pm

I am learning rapidly that chivalrous men are a dying breed. And most (all?) of the ones that still exist have been snapped up.

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becky
September 20th, 2004
8:06 pm

What Jen said. Alas.

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Anonymous
September 20th, 2004
8:57 pm

It’s great sex on the other end of that line. The trick is to know other similar phone numbers.

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Richard
September 20th, 2004
9:04 pm

Oh please. “Chivalrous” men are not all taken. They’re either too chicken or too slow to come up with a line like that. Sure, they think of this afterwards (“oh damn, I should have said [x]“) and then go into inner cinema mode and start to feel sorry for themselves for the rest of the day. I don’t blame you at all for not noticing them: it’s entirely their fault. I mean, do you really want to date a guy who won’t take a risk or someone who can’t think on his feet?

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filmgoerjuan
September 20th, 2004
11:33 pm

Isn’t it rather presumptuous to assume that she was talking to a man? ;)

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Jeff
September 22nd, 2004
8:29 am

Some people see ‘Chivalrous’ as ‘creepy’. It depends entirely on their mood, and past experience. More often than not, approaching a perfect stranger and offering to make their day better somehow is going to yield bad results.

I love Lisa Loeb specs.

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Lisa Chau
September 22nd, 2004
10:03 am

I gotta agree with filmgoerjuan on this one.

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kirsten
September 22nd, 2004
9:57 pm

i assumed she was talking to a woman. regardless, it would have been a charming thing to do, except if you didn’t mean to follow through.

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Rog
September 24th, 2004
5:51 am

I don’t understand why it would have been so bad to follow through on that? Exactly why do you have to be single and available in order to be chivalrous? Is chivaltry only about dating and/or getting laid?

I don’t think so, it could have been purely plutonic and just involved brightening someone’s day. I just don’t get how it would have to end at the offer.

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