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John's cat is in one of those why-yes-I-am-a-psychotic-tweaker moods. She was prancing past my recipe book on her way to the top of the fridge, and decided that my bending over to check how much carrot I needed was the signal for a vicious assault on the wavy purple monster that is my hair.
Snarled a battle cry, bit down on said hair, and *pulled*. Prompt release was obtained when she discovered that the wavy purple monster makes loud noises, mostly having to do with how catfights are not an interspecies activity[1].
I am so glad she doesn't have claws.
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So, I was actually talking to one of my co-workers today, and recent events came up. She mentioned going to see her husband in Cuba, I mentioned John's trip to Germany, conversation meandered around to her asking if he'd brought anything back.
So I told her about the notebook--lovely little thing, with bas-relief covers in a colour and weight that lets them pass for carved slate--and Hasenpfeffer[2], and the rock from Dachau, and the tiny music box. And she goes on to ask where he went, and I mention the castle of Mad King Ludwig the Second, and the Beethoven museum, and again, Dachau.
No reaction. Not even a flicker of recognition. I was watching for it the second time.
And I actually asked, and the name meant nothing to her.
This threw me.
I am used to my hobbies being obscure. I understand when people don't know who Lovecraft is, or when they've never heard of Doc Savage or Remo Williams. I have had to sketch out the functional versus substantive definitions of religion so often I think I could do it in my sleep. I know I can expect most people I casually meet not to know who Gorey or Gaiman or Coleridge is, and I am sick unto death of the sneering at comics. And all this is not even touching on the gaming.
But motheragod, not recognizing the place-name of Dachau? Isn't that like having the name Jeffrey Dahmer or Thomas Jefferson[3] ring absolutely no bells? I don't expect detailed knowledge, but no impression at all seems so very, very strange.
---
[1] You, with the Google and the links and the images? Do not disillusion me. No. Don't.
[2] A small plush horsh. Only just named.
[3] For the sake of being tiringly obvious; no correlation is suggested here between behaviour, only level of familiarity.
Snarled a battle cry, bit down on said hair, and *pulled*. Prompt release was obtained when she discovered that the wavy purple monster makes loud noises, mostly having to do with how catfights are not an interspecies activity[1].
I am so glad she doesn't have claws.
========
So, I was actually talking to one of my co-workers today, and recent events came up. She mentioned going to see her husband in Cuba, I mentioned John's trip to Germany, conversation meandered around to her asking if he'd brought anything back.
So I told her about the notebook--lovely little thing, with bas-relief covers in a colour and weight that lets them pass for carved slate--and Hasenpfeffer[2], and the rock from Dachau, and the tiny music box. And she goes on to ask where he went, and I mention the castle of Mad King Ludwig the Second, and the Beethoven museum, and again, Dachau.
No reaction. Not even a flicker of recognition. I was watching for it the second time.
And I actually asked, and the name meant nothing to her.
This threw me.
I am used to my hobbies being obscure. I understand when people don't know who Lovecraft is, or when they've never heard of Doc Savage or Remo Williams. I have had to sketch out the functional versus substantive definitions of religion so often I think I could do it in my sleep. I know I can expect most people I casually meet not to know who Gorey or Gaiman or Coleridge is, and I am sick unto death of the sneering at comics. And all this is not even touching on the gaming.
But motheragod, not recognizing the place-name of Dachau? Isn't that like having the name Jeffrey Dahmer or Thomas Jefferson[3] ring absolutely no bells? I don't expect detailed knowledge, but no impression at all seems so very, very strange.
---
[1] You, with the Google and the links and the images? Do not disillusion me. No. Don't.
[2] A small plush horsh. Only just named.
[3] For the sake of being tiringly obvious; no correlation is suggested here between behaviour, only level of familiarity.
