Question of the Day

Suggested by Shaker Ginviren: What have you done that your family will absolutely NOT let you live down?

Says Ginviren:

For me, it was when I was 7 years old. My parents were recently divorced, and my mom was back in school to become a teacher. She would drop me and my sibs off at my grandparents' house in the morning so they could take us to school.

One morning, I was watching TV (probably Saved by the Bell or something), and my grandma said, "Gin, would you like to come help me make the bed?" Now, being a 7-year-old who did NOT understand rhetorical devices, I promptly responded, "No thank you, Grandma."

Uh, yeah...that didn't go over so well. Even today, my family members will say "Don't ask Gin to do that, she will just tell you no!" It's 20 years later...I think it's time to let it die. LOL!

There are dozens of these I could mention, but the first one that came to mind is when we were watching the news one night (I was about 14) and some guy was broadcasting a sports story from the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion. It was abbreviated as "UIC Pavilion" under his headshot, and—thinking it was his name, rather than his location—I misread it as "Vic Pavilion."

"What an odd name—Vic Pavilion… Wait, no. That's a U. How would you say that? Yoo-ick Pavilion?"

My parents must have laughed at me for ten million years. And the UIC Pavilion has forever been known at Parental Manor as the Yoo-ick Pavilion.

It's also, of course, still the easiest way to imply that I'm being a dumbass about something twenty years hence. If I get a name wrong: "I wonder if he knows Yoo-ick Pavilion?" If I get a location wrong: "I wonder if that's anywhere near the Yoo-ick Pavilion?" Sigh.