btw, your comment made me spit coffee on my keyboard. I’m sending you a bill.

Carla: HoHo. Oh, yes my dear.

After I went a few rounds with Madam Mask of Faux Concern, she turned to me and said in her best New Age Passive Aggressive, “You have such anger.”

Bast would never stoop that low, though. She’d enjoy it if you got pissed.

I had a boss (my very LAST day-job boss) we called the Spitting Cobra, after a Matt Groening joke that described her perfectly. She’d smile and say nasty things so quickly you couldn’t respond appropriately. “Good morning! My, what an ugly shirt. I mean it’s ugly ON YOU. Now REALLY, there’s no reason to be so sour THIS early, what is the rest of your day going to be like?”

A good friend – who I’m aware is very affected by image issues – tried to sell me on it ENTIRELY on “You’ll look good, and then people will take you seriously.”

First off, I don’t really have a problem with people taking me seriously when I want them to (except maybe her). And secondly, the Image God has never had a hold over me.

Yet, it was as if she thought this was the most important appeal of the matter.

(I decided against the surgery — at least for now. I’ve definitely had ups and downs on the weight since then — up right now, due to inattention during depression and lack of exercise. But “image issues” would never tip the scales for me. It’s the last thing I’d consider – even if it is often the first reason considered in Hollywood.)

@scribbler. Don’t restrain yourself. I don’t think it’s off point at all.

But Bast definitely is ready to treat those she considers inferior (including Liana, even though she’s a potential avatar – she’s a half-bred variant) as toys to play with as she likes.

I completely forgot about the “opinionated little woman” dig.

We’d be so much better off if we didn’t have mouths. Then we could just be warm and nurturing receptacles for other people’s needs.

Well, there’s a dream to dream.

I’m reminded of this line I read years ago in an issue of Fish Police, at the height of its popularity: Steven Moncuse was talking about his old art teacher–the kind who goes around telling you how you’ll never amount to anything–being an “ugly, misshapen little troll… but only on the inside.”