Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Vocab Police


Sometimes a word choice will make me want to stop listening to a person entirely. “Arty” is one of them. It’s an adjective that makes me feel like screaming,“You boring fuck!” The person using it reveals himself/herself as someone who takes no risks and on top of it, feels fine about it. The implication is that the “arty” thing or person is different [from me], thinks a lot [just be happy], and looks a bit funny [why don’t you just shop from catalogues?].

I heard the word last night. Two people were talking about how they hang out with the “arty” crowd – because we are interesting - but they added, “arty” people are imbalanced. FYI: Artists love to get married. Being so provides a stability that’s a counterweight to the volatile nature of making things and trying to get it out there. But, I’ll keep your thought in mind next time I hear about vomiting into a champagne-cooler at a holiday office party.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fabulous!
You're not only right about how irritatingly people use that word, you've completely cracked me up in describing them.

Molly Stevens said...

Well, thanks, Dana.