12 Comments
User's avatar
Daisy Quaker's avatar

My fave vacay song, because pina coladas! But also love the twist on the song and the tidbits you pulled from it. I agree that imaginative play is a win for both (or all)!

Abigail A Mlinar Burns's avatar

And I love the group sex reference you just plopped in the end there 🙊😘

Eddy's avatar

Personal ads have been around longer than most people realize.

Back in the 60's maybe even the 50's people use to become pen pals. They would send a letter to an ad they saw in hopes that person would respond back. No telling how many pen pals turned into a relationship.

The ads did change over the years when people started being bolder about what they were looking for esp. when hiding behind a computer.

Abigail A Mlinar Burns's avatar

That’s so insightful and really making me think. Could the ability to speak with anonymity actually have made self expression less creative?

Thanks for sharing this pov, Eddy!!

Eddy's avatar

That is just an old man talking and remembering how things use to be.

By being pen pals or responding to personal ads you really get to learn about the person you are talking to. No photos off each other so you really learn about the person instead of making a judgement by seeing a what they look like. You learn what makes this person tick and what beliefs they have just by being yourself to them.

Rev. Kevin T. Taylor's avatar

Abigail, the comic reveal feels more interesting when read as a problem of curiosity: both people know each other well enough to feel familiar and poorly enough to be surprised by what the other still wants. A long relationship can accumulate assumptions faster than fresh questions, until familiarity begins standing in for actually seeing the person who is still beside you. That is why your “Stranger Spouse” practice fits this wonderfully ridiculous song so well; it interrupts the accumulated story long enough for curiosity to reenter the relationship. Thank you for giving a yacht-rock punchline a surprisingly serious question about how well we continue knowing the people we love.

Abigail A Mlinar Burns's avatar

You’re a poet, Rev! Thank you for this analysis 🥰 I love elevating the low-brow with ya ❤️

Ian Bibby's avatar

Although technically British, his parents are/were American and he was born in the American base at Burtonwood, just outside Warrington which was then in Lancashire, England.

Sexy songs?

"Fit to be tied" by Gerard Kenny.

"S&M" by Dean Friedman.

Abigail A Mlinar Burns's avatar

I thought his mom was English!?

And thanks for recc’s 🥰

fredeezthoughts's avatar

note to self: personal ads are the future of dating ✍️

Abigail A Mlinar Burns's avatar

Haha test it out for us and report back!

Peter Spyrka's avatar

Everyone remembers Escape but Rupert Holmes made tons of rich, flavourful music - my favourite is actually answering machine! I especially related to the feeling of not having enough time to say what you really want to someone you like