It Happened....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Puzzling Thought": 

ummm, is this about me?? 



Carly Simon Syndrome.





I tried to find the original actual video, but it's just waaaay too weird.  But seriously, Carly, this song clearly stood the test of time.  

Noticeably Absent....

Anonymous.

Where have you been? Did the holiday season get the better of you? Is the year off to a rough start? There have not been many blogments...this saddens me. Did you make a resolution to only read high quality intellectual pieces on the internet, like Perez Hilton? Did my blog not make the cut? Was there some offensive material on my blog? Was there some offensive material on Emily's blog, and I was found guilty by association?

Please come back. I have never been good at 'getting people back' - if you will, I'm often times way too stubborn...but in this very special instance, anon, I want you to know there's a big fat olive branch with your name on it.

Some Thoughts of Male/Female Friendships

So anon raised an interesting point in the comments section of a previous post, in regards to men and women being friends:

And on the question about if we are just trying to foster a friendship, we do not want to be friends with you. That is not meant in a mean way, but we don’t want to be friends.

Also, Samantha Jones bluntly put it: "Women are for friendship, men are for f*$&ing".

I am not sure my thoughts on this personally. I actually think almost everyone has some opposite sex friends, especially in the form of coworkers, former classmates, friends' significant others, or friends of one's significant other. I definitely have some male friends - friendships I've fostered through all of the above circumstances. I mean, why not? Friendship makes the road easier and helps us get through the hard times (Kleenex?) - I mean, look at my friendship with Emily. A terrible situation brought us together - if we hadn't found each other in that mess, I'm afraid to think of what could have happened.

Anyhow.

I do think guys and girls can be just friends. I think, though, a large factor is how good of friends they are - of course a casual friendship is easily understandable. However, if we're talking really good friends/best friends, then there might be issues. I think, personally, as Piper pointed out in a previous post - it all depends on if that's been worked out. I think as long as both parties are not interested in more than a friendship, then everything is ok. Throughout life, I've had multiple decently close guy friends (and they are the kind of guys who happened to often have close female friends - perhaps there's a certain type of guy best suited for this).

Anon also pointed out in his post that perhaps if there is more communication amongst men/women, there would be less confusion. I think that's probably one of the best perks of an opposite sex friend - getting a guy's opinion on stuff. That, and sometimes, situationally, friendships just happen based on circumstance/proximity/what have you, and it's not like dating someone - the gender doesn't really matter.

However, there's some Dave Matthews quote out there (which obnoxiously infiltrated many of AIM profiles back in college):

A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other...Maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever.

Here's my take on this - I think if the man is interested in more than a friendship, he knows this from the beginning. However, if he is not interested in the woman as more than a friend at the start, I personally don't see him becoming interested, despite becoming closer to her emotionally, etc. Simply, men know if they are attracted to someone or not, and this generally doesn't change. However, with women, I can definitely see things going the other way, because women have a tendency to feel attracted to men they feel close with and comfortable to (as opposed to it being based solely on physical appearance). So, in short, I don't think a guy will fall for his female friend unless he feels that way about her off the bat, but I can see a woman falling for her male friend over time.

Anyhow. Your thoughts? Is it possible for a guy and girl to be very close friends/best friends without one falling for each other? Are women more likely to fall for their male friends, or vice versa? Do you believe in male/female friendships?

Follow Me....

So, thanks to the help of my good friend Emily, I have set it up so that one can sign up to be a public follower of this blog. I know some of my readers might not want to publicly admit they're stalking me, or even associated with me, for that matter, however, I'd really really appreciate it if you sign up. Anon, I am looking your way....

Dear Anonymous....

Please friend me on facebook. I want to compare notes on our music/television/movie interests. Thanks!

A Cause for Concern?

So, it has been almost two weeks since anonymous has blogmented. I thought, perhaps, that anonymous had blogmented recently on the 'Old Navy' post, but it turns out that was just a regular commenter. At this point, the last comment he (or she) made was on the Fleetwood Mac post.

Anon. Did I embarrass you with the birthday shoutout? Are you shier than I initially thought? Do you feel your guise is blown since I called you out on being younger than 96?

Or, is it something entirely different? Have you been out of the country? Somewhere for two weeks without internet access? Have you just been busy - perhaps you're in the middle of moving or starting a new job? Or, should I be concerned about your well-being? Being almost 96, perhaps there's a medical concern....

Please let me know, anon. For as much as I curse your name at times, I think you really add an air of mystery to this blog.

D'oh!

Silly me. I got so excited about the Fleetwood Mac concert, I missed anonymous's birthday! HAPPY 96 Anon!! I tried to pick a picture I thought you might like for this post. At your age, this should get the blood flowing.

Now, anon, don't get me wrong. I think I know you better than you might expect. I KNOW you're not 96. I do not know one single solitary 96 year old who knows how to use a computer, let alone comment on a blog. You're a liar, anonymous. That, and you just don't seem like a Pisces....you're more of a Leo or a Scorpio.

I Knew This Would Happen

Ever since I started the birthday shoutout thing, I knew I'd drop the ball on a close friend/major reader's bday. And I have already. Twice. In fact, probably a third time that I can't think of offhand. So I apologize in advance to future friends with birthdays. Since the two birthdays I missed were those of men, I'm trusting they haven't thrown a fit, cursed my name or deleted me from their phone. Anyhow. With no further ado....

Happy (very) belated b-day Steve! (January 16). I can't wait for the wedding (even though I can do without the pressure of finding a hot date), and next time, Coast Sushi's on me!

Happy b-day Matt! (February 22). I can't wait for the baby girl. And, we, too, need to do sushi, as you said earlier. Drop me a line when your schedule has some openings.

(Editor's sidenote: Anonymous, please forward me your birthday. Thanks.)

Who Will Be My Valentine?

I expect anonymous might have some words....

Dear Anonymous....

Who are you? You clearly think you know me. You clearly are a regular participant in this blog. You clearly are amused at the thought of getting my goat. You clearly have well thought-out responses.

I'm not going to lie, a couple suspects have come to mind.

Please keep commenting (even though your most recent comment was clearly the most disturbing). Please identify yourself.

As a Blogger, I Live for This....

The other day, I wrote a post about newspapers.  I got a response from "anonymous".  Special sidenote - I have a couple guesses at who this "anonymous" might be.  However, the one thing that confuses me is, although I know many who might say something like this, ALL would sign their name to it.  Hmm. 

Anyhow, anonymous says:

"Print newspapers are a dying breed. Coverage of the G-Rod arrest is a perfect example of how print news has little use anymore.

He was taken into custody on Tuesday around 7 AM. If you learned of this news via the Wednesday morning paper, you are probably living in an area which not only doesn't have internet or TV; you probably don't even have electricity."

All right.  Ding, round two....

There is definitely a point that news happens more than once every 24 hours.  Newspapers probably aren't the best when it comes to 'breaking the news', but this isn't new.  Yes, the radio, tv, internet, etc. are probably all better at this.

However, a newspaper's sole purpose isn't 'breaking the news'.  There is something tangible, real and lasting about a newspaper.  At one time there was a certain buzz and excitement after a big event about 'seeing the headlines tomorrow' (yes, anonymous, headlines of stories about events that people were, indeed, already aware of).   Whether or not that buzz still exists is another argument entirely, however, I do know this - the day after Obama's election, there was a huge rush of people in line to get a copy of the morning after's paper (and I HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt it was to find out who won the election).  I know a lot of people were interested in preserving their copies and keeping them for years to come.  I question if these same people were printing up blog headlines and putting them in a safe place.  

Anyhow, one can most definitely question the future of newspapers in today's world, however, as I see it, there is undeniably something newspapers bring to the table that other forms of news media do not.