Thursday, March 03, 2011

Overheard in Roomie's Bedroom:

The TeeWee had cut on in alarm clock mode and the Today show was claiming that its next guest was going to be a woman who abandoned her husband and children to pursue her career and wrote a book about it...
Me: "So a woman ditching the fam to go be selfish is still controversial enough to rate a TeeWee interview and a book? In 2011? Really?"

RX: "Well..."

Me: "I mean, seriously, if it was a dude? When a guy leaves the wife and kids to go pursue his thing, is that even worth a mention?"

RX: "It'd depend on how he left them."

Me: "Oh, sure, I mean, chopped up and stuffed in a steamer trunk, yeah, that'd get some ink. But otherwise it's just a Billy Joel song."

22 comments:

genedunn said...

I thought it was a Bruce Springsteen song.

"Got a wife and kid in Baltimore, Jack, I went out for a ride and I never went back..."

McVee said...

What they need to do is claim it as a right. Just start yelling and screaming on TV that it's my right and nobody can take that away!
Yep. That's the new American way.

Tam said...

Yeah, Billy, Bruce... One of those guys...

:o

Joseph said...

I think you're focusing on the "left the family" part of this when it is more about the "wrote a book about it" part.

There are plenty of people who do this, very damn few have the self aggrandizing where-with-all to write a book about what a douchebag they are. Most people have enough of a conscience to be ashamed of such an act and not draw attention to themselves.

"Hey look at me everyone! I left my family to pursue my selfish interests and now I want to tell you all about it!"

Tam said...

Joseph,

"Most people have enough of a conscience to be ashamed of such an act and not draw attention to themselves."

One would hope. But, as they say, "man is the rationalizing animal." It's been my observation that people are infinitely capable of blame-shifting, claiming vice as virtue, and fabricating excuses from the thinnest of substance.

Jay G said...

Jackson Brown is the singer I believe you're looking for.

"Hungry Heart" would be the song, "Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack. I went out for a ride, and I never came back."

Damn, that was without google, too...

McVee said...

"Most people have enough of a conscience to be ashamed of such an act and not draw attention to themselves."

If that was the case I think you would see an immediate decline in the popularity of daytime TV shows...

Anonymous said...

Controversial or not, you have to admit the steamer-trunk snark was top-notch! You still got it, Tam.

Jay G said...

Shoulda gone to google, genedunn was of course correct. It was Springsteen who sang "Hungry Heart".

Open browser, insert keyboard.

Mea culpa internets!

North said...

Jay G: Bruce. The LP was The River. Double disk.

No google visit, just a lot of phonograph playing in my day.

Anonymous said...

"Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to."
Mark Twain

Modern Americans, male and female, are losing the ability.

Sabra said...

If we're talking songs, pretty much everyone with a decent-sized discography has covered the "man leaving his family" theme. I can think of two in country music off the top of my head.

And yeah, top-shelf snark, as always. Guess the memoir-pushers had to find someone with a story to top the self-centeredness of Eat, Pray, Love; I think that chick only left her husband.

og said...

It's every woman's right to get as far away as possible for the radical estrogen suppressing penis-oppressors.

I know that's what our marriage counselor said when I was married to the ex. Yes, she used those words. She also said things like "Intercourse is always an unwelcome invasion of every woman's body"

Turns out my ex rather liked penises. A lot of them. having become bored with mine, she was comparison shopping for many years while I supported her habit. In retrospect, I was extremely lucky to have dodged that particular bullet.

WV: Verperm. I'm not touchng that, after this comment.

Les Jones said...

Lemme guess. They didn't interview the husband and kids they abandoned 'cause they didn't write a book about it.

Tam, you might enjoy The Last Psychiatrist's take on a similar story:

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/12/infidelity_and_other_taboos_me.html

Nor is the point that these two dummies didn't anticipate that they'd be criticized. Were they really so brazen, so shameless, to think we'd all be "wow, that's so Lifetime Original Special!" Not exactly.

The mistake is in thinking they shouldn't have publicized their story. They didn't have any other choice.

It's a mantra: narcissists don't feel guilt, only shame. Well, it's not completely true, sometimes they do feel guilt, but you have to be hitting on a taboo to feel it.

Even the most hardened narcissist feels some passing guilt when their spouse is sobbing on the kitchen floor. How do you get over that? (Pills won't help, but psychiatry is happy to tell you they might.)

This is how narcissism eradicates guilt: it rewrites the story, or as the po-mo mofos say, "offer a competing narrative."

Matthew said...

If Gauguin hadn't abandoned his family we wouldn't have his legacy of great art. So, for artistic types, sometimes family is merely an impediment to greatness and actually behaving honorably would deprive the world of their genius.

=/

wv: calique - what the cool imams of the Caliphate congregate in

Tam said...

Og,

"She also said things like "Intercourse is always an unwelcome invasion of every woman's body""

Speaking from a position of knowledge, your counselor was full of shit.

Roberta X said...

...Sprinsteen chopped up and stuffed in a steamer trunk....

Naw, just all of his music, every last LP, CD, 8-track, cassette a digital file.

Srsly, you spend five years working at an AOR-format radio station, you end up with a list or artists whose music you never, ever want to hear again. You gotta "...turn the page." Argh... Also, "Texas," "facts is" and "taxes" *do* *not* *rhyme!* AAARRRRGH!

WV: "deadmo" I am not making this up.

og said...

"Speaking from a position of knowledge, your counselor was full of shit."

You're not the first woman to tell me that, thank God.

The woman in question, a rabid feminazi (how the hell she ever got into marriage counseling I'll never know) ended up hanging herself from a cold water pipe in the basement of her apartment building. Anytime someone tells me I should seek professional help, I tell them the last time I did, the psychiatrist hung herself.

Tam said...

"Anytime someone tells me I should seek professional help, I tell them the last time I did, the psychiatrist hung herself."

I feel bad for laughing when I read that, but only a little bit. ;)

og said...

Don't. It's intended to- at the very least- raise an eyebrow, and at the best, create mirth. It gives me visions of "Airplane" where Robert Hays causes one passenger after another to commit suicide as he relates his life story.

It would be miles less funny if it was not true.

Anonymous said...

Migod, og. Remind me never to consult a psychiatrist -- or, if you hear of a shrink going postal, check the back story...

Regards,
Ric

jimbob86 said...

"Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to."
Mark Twain

"Modern Americans, male and female, are losing the ability."

Devolving?

So this ..... woman.... had the chutzpah to abandon her kids and then write a book about it? ..... and then go on national TV and talk about writing a book about abandoning her kids?

Would it be a shame if her kids grew up to have the chutzpah to chop her up, put her pieces in a steamer trunk, write a book about the experience, and explain all about it on TV?

Maybe.