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On Mon, 1 Dec 2003, Jan van Steenbergen wrote: > --- John Cowan skrzypszy: > > > Oddly enough, 25 years ago it was I who kept missing the last bus, > > and it took a long time for my future wife to believe that I wasn't > > doing this as a ploy, but simply out of sheer geekiness: > > Well, in my case it was both ways. The biggest portion of my student > years I lived in a neighbourhood of Amsterdam that most people > considered "far away" (= more than half an hour on foot to the > centre). Mostly at my place, because I never liked spending the night > elsewhere. I wish I lived in your neighborhood. Half an hour by foot? That's inner city! I used to live in what today is just out of inner city, and it was half an hour by tram; now I'm half an hour by freeway/tollway during non-peak hours. > I should confess one little sin though: I knew perfectly when the > last bus/tram left, but I rarely made a particular effort to remind > the lady in question. I'm the kind of person everyone would assume knew that, but, in reality, I never do. (I don't like it when people assume I know something I don't. I much prefer it when they don't believe me and then I get to watch them go through the oh-my-god-he's-right phase. Not because I like to say 'I told you so', but because discovering something you didn't think was true is is fun.) > > > Of course, if somewhere during the process the lady speaks: > > > "Please Mr. Thalmann, I am an innocent young thing, and I am > > > definitely not waiting to be abused by a male chauvinist pig like > > > yourself! Behave, you naughty boy!", you might as well offer her > > > your bed right away and take the couch for yourself. > > > > Umm, I realize you're handicapped by doing this in an L2 (which is > > pretty amazing to begin with, IMHO), > > Thank you. Yes, Very amazing. > > but *that* wording could only be a come-on, not a rejection, in > > this our English tongue. > > Really? Why? There's something about 'innocent young thing' and 'naughty boy'. I assumed you were being ironic or something. -- Tristan