Thursday, April 17, 2008

Ladies' Lunch

I ate lunch yesterday at a Cracker Barrel, a faux country chain that puts its restaurants at Interstate interchanges around the south. If you haven’t been there, don’t go except for breakfast, which is pretty good. The other food is generic and bland.

I was seated across an aisle from two ladies who looked to be in their sixties. They were discussing a wide range of topics. I’ll stick with one.

Within that topic, I was struck by two things.

First, the source for almost every topic was “they said….” “They” had a lot of information.

I’ve found myself citing the same source in conversation, not too much given my legal background, but, some. “They” are better when accompanied by the grade school “who, what, when, where, why.”

Second, they (the ladies) sounded more like guys than women. The conversation was a staccato recitation of facts and opinions, mostly unrelated to each other. The kind of things guys throw at each other as non-sequitors.

They were equal opportunity dislikers. They didn’t like Bush’s Iraq adventure – “that’s his daddy’s war, I don’t care what anyone says.” They didn’t think Obama is honest – “I don’t trust him.” And “she’s no better.” “No she’s not.”

In Gwinnett County, Georgia, none of the candidates are safe if my aisle-mates are typical. Though, I don’t know that I trust their sources.

5 comments:

dr sardonicus said...

They may be on to something, y'know....

Ron Davison said...

I remember hearing someone say that for her whole life, she had worried about what 'they' would say about her shoes, her job, her boyfriend. Suddenly it occurred to her, she didn't even know who 'they' were.
'They' seem to be fairly ubiquitous.

Posol'stvo the Medved said...

Actually, it turns out that "they" are an LLC operating out of a suburb of Los Angeles. They have been for decades. And their average IQ is something like 97.

At least, that's what they say.

fermicat said...

"They" don't know who you vote for, once you are in the voting booth. Probably a good thing. I keep hoping this time will be different. We'll see...

Gypsy at Heart said...

We all have a boogeyman of our choosing. Sometimes 'they' is us.