University Diaries » “THAT’S why I failed the course! Because I’m a DUMBass.”

UD likes GW. A lot. She likes the student culture of the place.

I mean, she likes the culture she, in her innocent, ignorant world, gets to see. UD doesn’t go clubbing with them, after all…

But what she sees, she likes. Take this woman, Ms I’m A Dumbass. UD just now passed her on UD‘s way to the Foggy Bottom metro. They were rushing in opposite directions, UD contemplating existence, the woman yelling into her cell phone.

It was clear from her condescending, exasperated tone that the woman was talking to someone – a boyfriend? – who’d been offering excuses for her failure. Maybe illness, a bad professor?

NO!

She failed the course because she’s a dumbass, damn it…

**********************************

She was absolutely beautifully dressed. This is another thing disheveled UD loves about GW, especially this time of year, with the air getting chilly. All the women are wearing the following:

High burnished riding boots, spanking new, with a hint of sadism.

Black leggings.

Tightly tailored long black jackets.

The classiest scarves imaginable, worn with insolence.

Add to all this a generous helping of Incredibly Young, and you get the picture. They stamp their high hooves up and down Pennsylvania Avenue, cursing at their phones, adjusting their black shoulder bags, tossing their lustrous manes.

Some of them are Mean Girls.

UD expects great things of them.

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Richard Says:
October 20th, 2010 at 2:42AM

Difficult to read the description (riding boots, lustrous hair, insolence and a hint of sadism) without thinking of Johanna Krampf, from Kyril Bonfiglioli’s Mortdecai novels. She browbeats the hero, a sort of Flashman/Bertie Wooster figure, into all kinds of daft crime.

Margaret Soltan Says:
October 20th, 2010 at 3:41AM

Richard: I’ll have to do some Googling on this one — never heard of any of those exotic names (except for Flashman and Bertie Wooster, of course).

Richard Says:
October 20th, 2010 at 3:55AM

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/09/20/040920crat_atlarge

This article is probably the best summary online. It gives a sense of the raffishness and the ludicrously sustained turn of phrase.

Tim Lacy Says:
October 20th, 2010 at 9:13AM

“Worn with insolence.” …Love it. – TL

Matt L Says:
October 20th, 2010 at 11:49AM

good for her… self knowledge and a snappy dresser to boot. She’ll turn out fine and hopefully do great things. I wish the same for all our students.

Margaret Soltan Says:
October 20th, 2010 at 2:54PM

I worked on that phrase, Tim. Thanks.

Exactly my thought, Matt L.

Margaret Soltan Says:
October 20th, 2010 at 7:05PM

Thanks, Richard. Opening that link now.

University Diaries » “GW students are very texture-driven…” Says:
January 23rd, 2013 at 11:54AM

[…] said that. Haven’t I said that? Haven’t I, in my occasional posts about how attractive and fashionable GW students are, pointed out their texture-drivenness? Or if I […]

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