I went on datezzz with this author John this summer. He wrote some book with "Canaan" in the title that won some award-- it sounded boring. He talked about himself incessantly, he was quite attractive, he lied non-stop. He also was 36 and seemed like he just wanted a vagina through which to make little brainy writerish offspring and carry on his good genes. He said "you're funny" several times like this was both shocking and maybe bad. During the course of several drinks on our first date he brought up basically everything that was Googlely available to my person (like Tulip Sweet, election bumper stickers, SD abortion, Brown...seriously)and would not admit that he had Googled me. I was like, "Oh you googled me?" and he was like, "No I just saw a Clinton bumper sticker on the way over and thought 'I wonder how they came up with that design?'" or "Oh, I was in Providence recently-- have you ever been there?" Um yeah.

His major lie however pertained to Ani Difranco. He said that he was her first kiss when they were seven. Then he made a big fuss about telling this story ("Oh I shouldn't tell!".."C'mon! You have to!"..."I really shouldn't, but"..) about how he had been back in Buffalo over the holidays last year, and had reconnected with Ani, and she tried to drug him and seduce him. In game talk that is a DofHV and he would have been better off getting me drunker and telling me that my eyeballs were too fat in order to get me in the sack with him. My sensible part did not believe the Ani story. Too convenient. But there was a nagging doubt that maybe it was true. Today upon reading the amazing Guardian profile of Ms. Difranco, that doubt has been vanquished.

The key passages:


She has always been outspoken about her feminism; in that same Joni Mitchell interview she suggested that her subject, who has been disparaging of feminism, might embrace the concept. Mitchell simply responded, "I prefer the company of men." DiFranco went on to write that "Either you are a feminist or you are a sexist/misogynist. There is no box marked 'other'."



Patriarchy hurts all of us. You know" - her voice takes on an ironic tone - "I hate to sound like some 'crazy feminist', but" - she reverts to her usual drawl - "the older I grow, the more I understand peace and stability as a product of balance, and human society is fundamentally imbalanced. Patriarchy is like the elephant in the room that we don't talk about, but how could it not affect the planet radically when it's the superstructure of human society?"