At lunch today, a bunch of us were talking about our parents, and the pithy, often funny things that they say, in an effort to impart wisdom on us.

i love my dad. If there's one man i admire more than any other it's him, because i consider him the standard by which all other males of the species should be judged. i like to think i inherited some of his brains (except for his genius for math), his sense of humor, and his love of science, technology and sports. i wish i had inherited his rock solid dependability and work ethic. Or his unflappable calm and good humor.

My dad's a quiet man with a very dry sense of humor. He doesn't often give advice or make declarative statements, unless it's something funny. This actually serves to increase the value of anything serious he does tell his two children. Like the old TV commercial says: When my dad speaks, people listen. At least his kids do.

Here's a compilation of the most memorable and infuential statements my dad has uttered in my presence.

• Sometimes Annie, you have to do things you don't want to do.¹


• Don't ask me, look it up.²


• Learn to like sports, and you'll never be sorry.³


• The Democrats are a bunch of fucking communists.⁴


• You can apply to that school, but I'm not gonna let you go there.⁵


• What did you do to your hair?⁶


• What do you wanna do that for? There's too many damn lawyers.⁷


• You ride a motorcycle long enough, you're gauranteed to get a broken leg.⁸


• Me too.⁹


• Your career goal shouldn't be to just be a lawyer. It should be CEO.¹⁰


• What the hell did you do to your hair?¹¹


• Go ahead and spend it, that's what money's for.¹²


• A little hard work never hurt anybody.¹³


• You don't like that? That's the best part!¹⁴


• You're not going out of the house looking like that.¹⁵


• As long as you're living here, you follow my rules.¹⁶

¹ Probably the best advice he's ever given.
² This recurring theme was responsible for fostering my lifelong love of books.
³ Ditto for sports.
⁴ The impact of this statement was magnified by the fact that it was the only time i have ever heard my dad use the f-word.
⁵ In reference to U.C. Santa Cruz.
⁶ Upon seeing his only daughter as a brunette.
⁷ Which is what my dad, a lawyer, said to me upon first hearing that i was thinking about going to law school.
⁸ Statement made about a month before my high school boyfriend crashed his motorcycle.
⁹ His standard mumbled but sincere response to "i love you, Daddy."
¹⁰ After warming up to the idea of me in law school.
¹¹ Upon seeing his only daughter as a redhead.
¹² i know, i still can't figure that one out. Like i said, a real dry sense of humor.
¹³ What dad hasn't said this?
¹⁴ My dad, the quintissential Midwesterner. This statement usually referred to the most disgusting by-product of a meal, like tripe, bone marrow or chicken kidneys, for example.
¹⁵ This was also a favorite of my mom's, along with the next quote.
¹⁶ Thank God for those rules, though. They made me the sweet young woman i am today . . . well, occasionally.

Posted by: annika at 07:54 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 578 words, total size 4 kb.

i took an informal poll of the attendees to the election night party at our house. Admittedly, the results are not scientific since we're all law students, but i thought they were interesting just the same. Keep in mind that my school is decidedly wacky-liberal.

Here are the results, with annotations:

annika: Bush
Colleen¹: Kerry
Charissa²: Bush
Lori³: Kerry
Kathy⁴: Bush
Kimberly⁵: Bush
Monique⁶: Bush
Stacy⁷: Kerry
Erica⁸: Kerry
Mike #1⁹: Bush
Mike #2¹⁰: Kerry
Quan¹¹: Bush
Greg¹²: Kerry
David¹³: Kerry
Marc¹⁴: Kerry
Jeffrey¹⁵: Kerry
Professor M¹⁶: Kerry

Total: 10 for Kerry, 7 for Bush
_______________

¹  Colleen is of my housemates. Her big issue is "the Supreme Court,"� which is code for "pro-choice" voter.
²  Charissa is another housemate. Her family is from Utah. In order to live in Utah, there are two legal requirements, one of which is that you must always vote Republican.
³  Lori is a Democrat from Arizona. i didn't think those existed, but apparently they're about 44% of the voting population.
⁴  Aka Texas Kathy.
⁵  Aka Texas Kimberly. It's no surprise that the two Texans voted for Bush.
⁶  Monique defies conventional wisdom. She's an African-American conservative and voted for Bush.
⁷  Stacy is one of the top students in my class. Her vote surprised me. i thought for sure she was a Republican until i learned she went to UMass. Then i laughed when she told me she pictured me as a Kerry supporter.
⁸  Erica is also a one issue "pro-choice" voter, although she doesn't want to admit it. She repeats all the typical anti-Bush arguments, but without conviction.
⁹  My third housemate Mike is a thoughtful and committed Republican.
¹⁰  My boyfriend. He was afraid to tell me who he voted for. i'm mulling over whether or not to forgive him.
¹¹  Yes, that Quan. His family emigrated from Vietnam and raised him to be a good freedom-loving Republican.
¹²  Lori's boyfriend seems apolitical and i might have swayed him had i known in time that he was undecided.
¹³  David is openly gay and open minded on many political issues, but like Andrew Sullivan, the FMA made up his mind for Kerry.
¹⁴  Marc is liberal Hispanic Catholic Kerry voter who won't forgive the Republicans for trying to take down Clinton.
¹⁵  Jeffrey is brilliant, but sorta crazy. He can't sit still and he's always spouting off some insane opinion, usually conspiracy related. He's fun to have around, but there's no sense arguing with him.
¹⁶  Professor M is an expert on criminal law and procedure as well as a member of the vast left wing academic conspiracy.

Posted by: annika at 08:06 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 449 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Forgive your Carville. Quan ownz. That is all.....

Posted by: reagan80 at November 03, 2004 12:21 AM (hlMFQ)

2 Love the footnotes. Law Review here you come!

Posted by: Daniel Lowenberg at November 03, 2004 05:11 AM (kQ2jY)

3 Dump the boyfriend. I KNEW there was something fucked up about that guy.

Posted by: Casca at November 03, 2004 05:20 AM (cdv3B)

4 #10's a bummer

Posted by: wobots at November 03, 2004 10:40 AM (djVNl)

5 What a bittersweet day! The happiness I feel about Bush's re-election has been offset by the disappointment of hearing that Annika has a boyfriend.

Posted by: Patrick at November 03, 2004 07:08 PM (olOFd)

6 Annie, Just withhold sex; when your boyfriend becomes frustrated, angry and hateful, he'll turn into a Republican. If you don't believe me, just ask anyone at Democratic Underground. They'll tell you. (By the way, DU has "temporarily" closed its discussion forums to "unregistered users." They are biiiiiitter. They claim they closed the discussions because of unusually high traffic volume -- a-holes like me going over for cheap entertainment -- but personally, I suspect they're planning a coup d'etat. Lord knows some of the charming folks at Fat Ollie's seem inclined in that direction.)

Posted by: Matt at November 04, 2004 04:23 AM (eWM9Y)

7 Is Charissa a good mormon? Because otherwise the requirement to vote Republican is lifted...

Posted by: Jordan at November 04, 2004 06:49 PM (dLmIW)

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