Some things are better left unsaid
oktober 31st, 2007
Today, as I’m getting ready for a quite brain-activity-intense class, someone comes huffing and puffin into the classroom, walks to the table behind me and puts down her bag – incidentally containing what turned out to be an over-sized old Compaq laptop – on the table with a thump, and exclaims ‘this bag is about as heavy as me!’
What do you say to something like that? I turned around to see the bag in question, and part of me felt like making a slick comment, but another part of me maintained it would be better to keep my mouth shut – so I did. I couldn’t quite let it go, though, so my brain went onto going over various possible comments on the theme ‘this bag is about as heavy as me!’ Some possibilities it came up with are:
- ‘I doubt it; then the bag would have to be much heavier!’ (which would probably be true for even a very slim individual, but doesn’t really sound all that good)
- ‘Wow, that bag must be really heavy then!’ (which again would probably hold true, but sounds even worse)
- ‘No, I don’t think you’re that heavy…’ (which will probably be a so gross understatement that it will backfire)
- ‘I can only imagine…’ (kind of easygoing, but again doesn’t sound all that good when you think about it)
- ‘Really – how much do you weigh?’ (I’ll leave this one uncommented)
Mentally going through these possibilities, it occurred to me you generally should just steer clear of commenting on matters pertaining to people’s weight – good thing I kept my mouth shut 
Later, I came to think of the perfect reply though: ‘as long as it’s not as heavy as me’. Here we get a display of self-irony, detracting the attention from the person whose weight we are not commenting on, and maybe even containing a hidden compliment 
Entry Filed under: Newbold
16 Comments Add your own
1. Lars | oktober 31st, 2007 at 20:00
I hear you, brother, I find myself in situations like that all day long.
‘Come on, nothing’s THAT heavy?’
‘It ought to be carrying YOU around, then!’
‘You’re making me curious now, jump my shoulders.’
‘Yes, that bag really needs to do some exercises.’
‘Your bag probably ate to many bagels.’
2. Jonas | november 1st, 2007 at 00:30
Yeah, I though someone might come up with some extra comments – don’t know why I was thinking of you, Lars
3. Lars | november 1st, 2007 at 11:43
Because I’m your only reader?
Wait – that’s one of those I should’ve left unsaid.
4. Jonas | november 1st, 2007 at 13:40
Hmm…
5. Lars | november 1st, 2007 at 19:28
(By the way, I don’t have access to your statistics)
6. Julie | november 2nd, 2007 at 13:41
(By the way, not correct)
7. Jonas | november 4th, 2007 at 12:59
Thank you so much Julie, that did warm my heart
8. Katrine | november 4th, 2007 at 14:33
I actually do read your blog too
…and apparently leave comments too…
9. raabjerg | november 4th, 2007 at 15:07
Wow, I already have a crowd reading my blog
Scary perspectives… (Halfway expecting a comment from someone on whether or not 3 people constitute a crowd)
10. Lars | november 6th, 2007 at 18:18
It does, actually.
(I quit being predictable.
)
11. Charlotte | november 7th, 2007 at 13:01
And your newly discovered crowd of readers is bigger than you imagine…
12. Jonas | november 7th, 2007 at 19:01
Not bad, not bad
Though admittedly the crowd of four does put on some pressure to come up with new and exciting stuff – too bad I’m in a bit of a blog-limbo right now…
13. Charlotte | november 8th, 2007 at 12:11
Well, we’ll be cheering at you! Remember we’re your crowd of fans, so in our opinion you can do (write) nothing wrong! (maybe that is pushing it a little bit too far…?!)
Nice blog you’ve got so far, by the way
14. Jonas | november 12th, 2007 at 17:24
Thank you, Charlotte – looks like your cheering had some effect
Now I just hope it’s true that I can’t write anything wrong
15. Niels Tvesok | januar 8th, 2008 at 18:47
Oh man… didn’t put your blog on bloglines, last time I was here (3 months ago)… So I didn’t think of it, and now I really have some catching up to do.
If I had at least come to think about it during the holidays…
Well, so now it’s one more reader…
16. raabjerg | januar 8th, 2008 at 21:54
Cool
I feel like I should start doing some portfolio management, maybe adding special membership services, subscription bonuses and the like
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed