Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 18:09:37 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Where's my copy of "Confessions of a Crap Artist?"
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

At 12:20 PM 03/11/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello Candy
>
>On 10-Mar-02, Candy Madigan wrote:
>CM> At 05:49 PM 03/09/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>
>CM> ...I'm enough of a snob that I
>CM> don't want to hang with losers...
>
>So what's a "loser?"  A term in TV comedy (specifically, those
>requiring a low-pass filter on your brain) dialect connoting
>someone who consistently makes poor life choices rendering them
>unsuccessful in finance, romance, or other momentary pursuit?
>A typical Philip K. Dick protagonist?  A Hindu Untouchable
>without the aspects of heredity or practical utility?  Somebody
>who forgot to cross their fingers as prophylaxis against
>cooties?  Anybody outside the "village" of thirty-or-so close
>acquaintances that each of us can keep in their heart at any
>one time?
>
>CM> (and you have to admit it, but most fen
>CM> start out as losers and many never move past that)
>
>Wow.
>------------------
>
>Maybe a loser is somebody you were never accidentally thrown
>together with long enough to get a feel for who they are.  On
>the other hand, maybe the thing that is "lost" is that
>accident, and then the "loser" would clearly---oh, but what
>a characteristically boorish thing for me to say, I've so
>meant to reform...
>
>CM> so that gives me a very
>CM> small group as potential new friends.
>
>While I object to the line of thought, I suppose I can't argue
>with the conclusion.

  A loser is a person over 30 who still lives with mommy and still has a
crap job and thinks they have the universe's answers and is totally
socially maladjusted.  Or a person who is under 30 who is clearly headed
that way.  My John started out as a loser, but he got his head on straight
and now he isn't.  And I know I'm offending a great many of the people on
this list, and I'm sorry, but that's my honest opinion.