You're In A Lesbian Pulp Novel From 1958! What's Distracting You From Work And Causing Your Heterosexual Coworker Nora To Glance Curiously Over At Your Desk?
The Chatner has been astonishingly ill and in bed all week. Please enjoy this rerun of a 2019 post until such time as I can breathe through my nose again.
(Yes, I’ve been reading Beebo Brinker again.)
That bar we went to last night, the one Bill just seemed to know about as if by intuition — that bar didn’t have any windows in it…
The innately feminine curves of your roommate’s hairbrush
Subway full of people on it — the deadening press of bodies — the insolent yet knowing stares of strange men — the queer feeling of being buried alive and yet somehow still in a hurry to get somewhere —
She knows. She knows!
“A butch? What’s that?”
Marsha has the fine, high coloring and the aristocratic step of the Palomino horses your mother used to ride before her accident
Someone made a joke last night and you didn’t realize until you arrived at home. You never realize when someone’s telling a joke, which leads to the wildly destabilizing conclusion that most of the people you know are joking most of the time.
Had that handsome brown voice on the phone that morning belonged to a boy or a girl? And why did it matter so?
Baxter called again for you last night — he says he’s picking you up at eight whether you’re dressed or not
A woman you barely know is rude and has a bracingly short haircut
Nothing’s the matter, Jackie! Please, just leave me alone!
A glass of milk failed to steady your nerves after witnessing a primal scene
A double date with you and Rick? What other choice did she have? This was normal society, and that was the game to be played…
“If I had wanted sarcasm,” Jeff had remarked acidly, “I would have stayed at Chita’s.”
Soft fawn-colored shirtwaist
Learned about coffee shops
Silver flash of hair curlers in the moonlight
Angry belt-tying
Swept laughing through a doorway in the Village
Diner sexuality
Shared a plate of eggs with a softly handsome woman
Saw your roommate kissing a man last night and felt instinctively repulsed and nauseated by the unnatural lines of their embrace
Hung out in a bookstore without buying anything
Weight of newspaper oppressive in your handbag
Spent the night sitting half-upright in bed listening for something, hearing nothing
Roommate wore pajamas last night
Midnight ironing
Your beard has started quoting his analyst to you
Your father.
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Feel better soon! Perhaps you need another glass of milk.