The Importance Of Being Sweet

I was accused by some of my co-workers yesterday of being a blue state person and all because I called a guy sweet. “Guys can’t be sweet,” I was admonished by the lady who sits in front of me. “Why not,” I replied. “You shouldn’t ever call a guy sweet,” I was once more told. Here’s what led to the whole discussion – I had placed a call to one of our customers (I work for an automobile parts manufacturer) to discuss packaging. Usually these packaging calls are unpleasant with lots of bantering back and forth, but yesterday morning I was surprised when the person helping me was efficient and nice. So later in the afternoon during a call to our other facility who had ordered the packaging I had to quote to the customer I let them know how pleasant my earlier contact with the customer had been. Somewhere in that conversation I said the guy helping me was sweet. That’s when my office mates let me have it. I confess my naivety to the whole thing, because I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was about a guy being called sweet. I think of myself as being sweet. I’m not rude, I hold doors for people, and I’m a good husband and father. All of which seems to fall under the heading sweet to my obviously sheltered ears. It finally hit me that my co-workers use the word sweet as a euphemism for something else entirely from what I meant. Well I didn’t mean that. From the American Heritage Dictionary copyright 1983: the 3rd definition given for sweet – Having an agreeable disposition.



Also from the culture war front – why are people so bent out of shape over the Monday Night Football opening? I’ll agree that it was in poor taste, but that’s about it. I keep hearing about how it plays to stereotypes and how horrible it was to do so. I think lots of people are offended if they’re not being offended these days. And then there’s the ludicrous Condoleeeza Rice remarks from that idiot disc jockey who claims he was calling her an Aunt Jemina because she had a servile position in the Bush administration and not because he was some racist jerk. Doesn’t everybody except for Bush have a servile position?



My first music review is up at blogcitics. It’s on the band of the week here at Soulfish Stew, The Faint.

You can go directly to it here: Fainting Spell
More reviews will come in the next few weeks.