Timothy McSweeney's Header Image

The deadline for the 2008 Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, a $2,500 grant given to a woman writer of 32 years or younger, is this Thursday, May 15. For more information, click here.

- - - -

Actual
Ways I Have
Been Flirted With
That, in the Future,
I Wish You Would Refrain From, With Explanations
as to Why, and Suggestions for Alternative
Methods.

BY AIMEE HENNESSY

- - - -

Telling me I look like Celine Dion. [Are you trying to say my head looks too big for my body in this dress? A preferable Canadian would be any one of the Kids in the Hall in drag.]

Putting a mozzarella ball wrapped with prosciutto in my glass of wine. [First of all, I'm a vegetarian. So how about peeling off the prosciutto first—enticingly, with your tongue, of course—then dropping it in my wine?]

Asking me to perform fellatio on you, prefaced with "I'm really in love with my girlfriend, but—" ["Fellatio"? Come on, that word just ruined it. A more romantic way of saying this would be "I'm really in love with my girlfriend, but would you care to perform oral sex on me?"]

Sneaking into my bedroom during a house party and writing "I WANT TO LOVE" in the dirt of my window with your fingertips. [This is sweet in a tragic sort of way, but I don't want people knocking on my door and asking for Morrissey anymore. In lieu of actually cleaning my window, I edited it so that it now reads "I WANT TO LOVE FAJITAS." Next time, how about writing "Would you care to perform oral sex on me?"]

Asking me to move in with you for two weeks, holed up in your bedroom, where we will throw empty beer cans at people who pass by on the sidewalk below. [This one may have been successful, but I assure you, it will not work again. If you wanted me to take you back sometime in the future, they should have been full beer cans and not just half-full ones with cigarette butts floating in them. I won't fall for that again. My tastes have matured.]

Telling me you have fantasies about Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron gettin' it on. [We all have these fantasies. It's like telling me you have regular bowel movements. Show me you have some imagination. Tell me the fantasies you have about toothbrushes gettin' it on with trailer hitches.]

Referring to me as "the Yellow Rose of Texas." [I am not blond, Texan, or jaundiced, and that coat was not yellow, it was camel. Maybe you could refer to me as "the Deathly White Opium Poppy of Northern California." That has a nice ring to it.]

Telling me you used to be a roadie for the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, calling me the hottest girl in town, and then eating my microwave burrito at the bar while I'm playing pool. [Hey, I'm trying to put on some weight after the Celine Dion comparison. Why don't you just put the burrito in my glass of wine? That'll get my attention, but I'll still get to eat the damned thing.]

 

MORE LISTS

 

- - - -

MAIN PAGE   |   ARCHIVES

 

Memories of Amanda Davis

 


Red dot denotes content that is new today.

Black dot denotes newish content.

McSWEENEY'S STORE

SUBSCRIBE TO:
McSWEENEY'S
THE BELIEVER
WHOLPHIN

FUTURE McSWEENEY'S BOOKS

THE AMANDA DAVIS HIGHWIRE FICTION AWARD

INVITE A McSWEENEY'S AUTHOR TO SPEAK IN YOUR TOWN OR COLLEGE

McSWEENEY'S MONTHLY MAILING LIST

McSWEENEY'S-RELATED EVENTS AND VARIOUS TOUR DATES

ORDER INQUIRIES AND ADDRESS CHANGES

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
FOR BOOKS
FOR THE QUARTERLY
FOR THE WEBSITE
FOR WHOLPHIN

McSWEENEY'S INTERNSHIPS

CONTACT US

- - - -

LETTERS TO McSWEENEY'S

LISTS

McSWEENEY'S PREDICTS

McSWEENEY'S RECOMMENDS

NEW WHOLPHIN FILM

DAN LIEBERT, VERBAL CARTOONIST

JOKES BY BRIAN BEATTY

REVIEWS OF NEW FOOD

DISPATCHES FROM MOSCOW

SO YOU WANT TO BE PRESIDENT?

DISPATCHES FROM THE ANACOSTIA

THE WINNER'S CIRCLE WITH ERIC FEEZELL

BEN GREENMAN'S FAKE CELEBRITY MUSICALS

DISPATCHES FROM A HUMANITARIAN JOURNALIST

DISPATCHES FROM IRAQ

SHORT IMAGINED MONOLOGUES

PHILIP GRAHAM SPENDS A YEAR IN LISBON

STAINED TEETH: A COLUMN ABOUT WINE

DISPATCHES FROM THE NAPOLEONIC WARS AT THE MET

KEVIN DOLGIN TELLS YOU ABOUT PLACES YOU SHOULD GO IN EUROPE

LAWRENCE WESCHLER'S EVERYTHING THAT RISES: A BOOK OF CONVERGENCES

THE CONVERGENCES CONTEST

ABOUT WHAT IS THE WHAT

ABOUT BOWL OF CHERRIES

ABOUT COMEDY BY THE NUMBERS

ABOUT JOHN BRANDON'S ARKANSAS

LETTERS FROM AN EARTH BALL TO, OR CONCERNING, SEAN HANNITY

DISPATCHES FROM ADJUNCT FACULTY AT A LARGE STATE UNIVERSITY

ADVICE FROM A PERSON WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN PSYCHOLOGY

DISPATCHES FROM THE NBA ENTERTAINMENT LEAGUE

JOHN MOE'S POP-SONG CORRESPONDENCES

B.R. COHEN'S ANNALS OF SCIENCE

INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE INTERESTING OR UNUSUAL JOBS

OPEN LETTERS TO PEOPLE OR ENTITIES WHO ARE UNLIKELY TO RESPOND

DISPATCHES FROM A PUBLIC LIBRARIAN

MICHAEL IAN BLACK IS A VERY FAMOUS CELEBRITY

DISPATCHES FROM ROY KESEY, AN AMERICAN GUY MARRIED TO
A PERUVIAN DIPLOMAT LIVING IN CHINA


STEPHEN ELLIOTT'S POKER REPORT

- - - -

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL