I liked the books I read that said things like ‘I shan’t’. I would try to find a way to say in my life, to reply, ‘I shan’t do that, mother.’ That was so far away from my barrio world.
Any woman who has ever worked in a gutsy male environment knows that the correct response to a randy remark is an even more salacious retort. But timid feminists don’t see it that way. To them, the proper reply is a lawsuit – that safe, modern version of the old slap in the face.
To those who cynically say today that liberal democracy would be ‘obsolete,’ I reply: liberal democracy, human rights, freedom of the press and the rule of law were the right way, are the right way, and will be the right way.
Sometimes, the best way to handle all the nasty comments is to send a snappy reply to one particularly foul one. Trolls need to know that if they are rude, they may be made an example of.
The reason I was able to grow my business was that every day, after producing 30 minutes of wine television, I spent 15 hours a day replying to every single person’s e-mail and every single person’s Twitter @ reply.
You do get some weirdos, but if there are any nice people out there who want to write to me pleasantly, then they’ll get a pleasant reply back!
It’s notoriously difficult to get actors to go on record speaking about other actors. Such requests are usually met with terse replies from publicists explaining that their clients are on set and too busy to reply.
There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people.
I finally had to go to the American Civil Liberties Union here in northern California to get my reply published to what I considered to be a hatchet job done by Stanley Crouch.
I’m exceptionally email un-savvy, so to reply to my emails is like a torture. It’s like literally, half of all my emails, I get my secretary to type out for me. And the personal ones, I avoid and just pick up the phone and call them.
The usual complaint is, ‘I have no other way of earning a living.’ The harsh reply can be, ‘Do you have to live?’
My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass’; ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.’
‘Await Your Reply’ by Dan Chaon. I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of disappearing and becoming someone else. Even if you don’t share that obsession, I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
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