Don't worry this has a happy end
August 22, 2022 11:41 AM Subscribe
Tube on strike, I dawdled to Paddington on Friday. Passing the old wrought iron sign for Pizza Express, I was reminded of an event 30+ years ago, when I got caught up in a drama that resulted in a divorce, two marriages and many changed lives.It began with a heart attack... (SLTwitter)
Wow - what a story! I needed some good news today so well timed!
posted by leslies at 12:18 PM on August 22, 2022
posted by leslies at 12:18 PM on August 22, 2022
Absolutely lovely. Thank you for sharing this.
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:55 PM on August 22, 2022
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:55 PM on August 22, 2022
Perfect story
posted by honey badger at 12:56 PM on August 22, 2022
posted by honey badger at 12:56 PM on August 22, 2022
This is a very good twitter thread and I refuse to interrogate it further.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:04 PM on August 22, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 1:04 PM on August 22, 2022 [7 favorites]
It sure is dusty down Marylebone Road come summer...
posted by chavenet at 1:17 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 1:17 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
I need to review CPR and check that I’ve got the mouth to mouth shield in my little first aid kit.
posted by clew at 1:18 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 1:18 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
This is great.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:20 PM on August 22, 2022
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:20 PM on August 22, 2022
As I understand it, these days they're willing to let the breaths slide, as long as you keep up chest compressions.
Honestly, just be willing to call an ambulance and then get in there and start squeezin' is all I can ask of you as a passer-by.
(Loved this thread, and it was a great way to start Monday!)
posted by wenestvedt at 1:31 PM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
Honestly, just be willing to call an ambulance and then get in there and start squeezin' is all I can ask of you as a passer-by.
(Loved this thread, and it was a great way to start Monday!)
posted by wenestvedt at 1:31 PM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
Worth noting that if you can't do hand compressions, chest compressions using your feet are better than nothing.
(Better to be alive with a possible broken rib than dead)
Doing CPR is hard for older people so I teach them to use a foot
posted by carriage pulled by cassowaries at 1:35 PM on August 22, 2022 [5 favorites]
(Better to be alive with a possible broken rib than dead)
Doing CPR is hard for older people so I teach them to use a foot
posted by carriage pulled by cassowaries at 1:35 PM on August 22, 2022 [5 favorites]
I admit, I only got a few tweets in (when the wife showed up) and abandoned it because it felt kinda... workshopped. Perhaps I am too cynical.
posted by tavella at 2:03 PM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by tavella at 2:03 PM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
tavella, why not both?
Author is a working writer, per the London Library Emerging Writer's website:
"Current projects include a hybrid nature/family memoir and an intersectional biography of the British landscape."
I don't use twitter but most of the content from twitter posted on Mefi reads like at least a 2nd draft.
posted by kittensofthenight at 4:20 PM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
Author is a working writer, per the London Library Emerging Writer's website:
"Current projects include a hybrid nature/family memoir and an intersectional biography of the British landscape."
I don't use twitter but most of the content from twitter posted on Mefi reads like at least a 2nd draft.
posted by kittensofthenight at 4:20 PM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
That was lovely. But it did lose me at the framed ragged handkerchief.
posted by Mchelly at 4:23 PM on August 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 4:23 PM on August 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
I admit, I only got a few tweets in (when the wife showed up) and abandoned it because it felt kinda... workshopped.
She's probably been telling (parts of) the story for going on 30 years now. I suspect she's figured out how it works well in both written and verbal forms, yes.
posted by Etrigan at 7:26 PM on August 22, 2022 [10 favorites]
She's probably been telling (parts of) the story for going on 30 years now. I suspect she's figured out how it works well in both written and verbal forms, yes.
posted by Etrigan at 7:26 PM on August 22, 2022 [10 favorites]
What a story! The Twitter version definitely smacks of a tale oft-told, but it's very powerful, distilled down to the very basics and no words wasted like that.
posted by dg at 9:20 PM on August 22, 2022
posted by dg at 9:20 PM on August 22, 2022
Fuck me, what a fantastic story. Thank you for sharing it!
posted by dorothy hawk at 9:25 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by dorothy hawk at 9:25 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
We pause then. On the corner of the street, at all kinds of crossroads.
That's a lovely turn of phrase.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:35 PM on August 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
That's a lovely turn of phrase.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:35 PM on August 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
She's probably been telling (parts of) the story for going on 30 years now. I suspect she's figured out how it works well in both written and verbal forms, yes.
It's actually a different feeling for me. Like, the orange-in-the-mouth story from a few days ago, that was definitely written for maximum amusement value with no doubt some exaggeration, but I had no problem believing the core story of shoving an orange into your mouth with alarming and disgusting results was true. In the case of this story, I had no confidence that someone hadn't written a short story they were passing off as a memoir.
posted by tavella at 10:37 PM on August 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's actually a different feeling for me. Like, the orange-in-the-mouth story from a few days ago, that was definitely written for maximum amusement value with no doubt some exaggeration, but I had no problem believing the core story of shoving an orange into your mouth with alarming and disgusting results was true. In the case of this story, I had no confidence that someone hadn't written a short story they were passing off as a memoir.
posted by tavella at 10:37 PM on August 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
In the case of this story, I had no confidence that someone hadn't written a short story they were passing off as a memoir.
Or perhaps a memoir they were passing off as a short story...? Creative non-fiction is a thing. We live by and through narratives which is what makes truth told in a story-telling way so engaging. Something can be a story and also be true. You might not respond to such a style and that's ok.
posted by Thella at 3:10 AM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
Or perhaps a memoir they were passing off as a short story...? Creative non-fiction is a thing. We live by and through narratives which is what makes truth told in a story-telling way so engaging. Something can be a story and also be true. You might not respond to such a style and that's ok.
posted by Thella at 3:10 AM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
In the case of this story, I had no confidence that someone hadn't written a short story they were passing off as a memoir.
If someone writes - even on an amateur basis - this is just how they tell stories, especially ones they've retold a few times. There are some stories I tell where I know that I am using literary "tricks" - and sometimes even some performance tricks if I'm telling you in person - because I know it will enhance the story. But that doesn't mean the story I'm telling isn't a real story about a thing that really happened, I just...am telling it in a way that uses literary elements because I know that works.
And anyway - why are we getting caught up in "did this happen really" anyway? Have we gotten so cynical and jaded that when we hear something like this, we instantly start to question whether it "really happened" and nitpick it to death in an effort to prove that "ah-ha, I knew this couldn't be real"?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:35 AM on August 23, 2022 [9 favorites]
If someone writes - even on an amateur basis - this is just how they tell stories, especially ones they've retold a few times. There are some stories I tell where I know that I am using literary "tricks" - and sometimes even some performance tricks if I'm telling you in person - because I know it will enhance the story. But that doesn't mean the story I'm telling isn't a real story about a thing that really happened, I just...am telling it in a way that uses literary elements because I know that works.
And anyway - why are we getting caught up in "did this happen really" anyway? Have we gotten so cynical and jaded that when we hear something like this, we instantly start to question whether it "really happened" and nitpick it to death in an effort to prove that "ah-ha, I knew this couldn't be real"?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:35 AM on August 23, 2022 [9 favorites]
Y'all sounds like my wife scolding me when I tell a story: "It's not exactly like it happened!". "Yes, of course", I reply, "but this way is actually interesting!".
posted by Harald74 at 6:23 AM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Harald74 at 6:23 AM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
Two kinds of people, apparently...
posted by Harald74 at 6:24 AM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Harald74 at 6:24 AM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
If someone writes - even on an amateur basis - this is just how they tell stories, especially ones they've retold a few times.
I studied literature and my college courses were very writing-intensive. I quickly learned that I had absolutely not remotely enough talent to be A Writer, but enough skill to keep working vaguely in writing-adjacent fields. Anyway one day a partner of mine stole and read my journal (I know, I know), and part of what upset him so much was "it's written like a story, you make everything sound interesting and dramatic but it's not!" And I was like, my dude, I write for my rent money, what do you expect.
It's just that if you read a lot, and if you write a lot (regardless of whether you write especially well, or professionally), you start seeing the stories in things and how events hang together, and how little things that happened can feel like symbols or metaphors or foreshadowing in hindsight.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:27 AM on August 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
I studied literature and my college courses were very writing-intensive. I quickly learned that I had absolutely not remotely enough talent to be A Writer, but enough skill to keep working vaguely in writing-adjacent fields. Anyway one day a partner of mine stole and read my journal (I know, I know), and part of what upset him so much was "it's written like a story, you make everything sound interesting and dramatic but it's not!" And I was like, my dude, I write for my rent money, what do you expect.
It's just that if you read a lot, and if you write a lot (regardless of whether you write especially well, or professionally), you start seeing the stories in things and how events hang together, and how little things that happened can feel like symbols or metaphors or foreshadowing in hindsight.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:27 AM on August 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
The point is, it’s only interesting if it’s true. If it’s fiction it’s cheesy old crap.
posted by Phanx at 8:23 AM on August 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Phanx at 8:23 AM on August 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
FWIW, I've known Electra for many years (through a fandom that Metafilter launched me into, oddly enough, the internet is a small small world). We're not close personal friends such that I would vouch for any specific experiences she has, but I do feel pretty confident that she would not make up an experience wholesale and present it as an actual thing that happened to her.
Certainly could be that like any story that gets told many times, especially by a writer, this one's gotten polished and tweaked for better storytelling over the years. I don't know and haven't asked her.
posted by Stacey at 8:37 AM on August 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
Certainly could be that like any story that gets told many times, especially by a writer, this one's gotten polished and tweaked for better storytelling over the years. I don't know and haven't asked her.
posted by Stacey at 8:37 AM on August 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
I think that whether or not it's true, it isn't anywhere near being cheesy old crap. It is beautifully told. That moment of quiet recognition and oblique acknowledgement of queer love amidst a crisis was really warm and touching.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:20 AM on August 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 9:20 AM on August 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
Look, obviously there are a lot of "and then everyone clapped" or "kids say the darndest things" bullshit stories on social media. But when every single thing that is charming, or serendipitous, or sublimely funny and weird is immediately pounced on as "FAKE DIDN'T HAPPEN PICS OR IT ISN'T REAL THINGS THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN FOR 400 ALEX" all I can think is, I'm sorry so many people have such incredibly boring lives, friends, and kids that basically all joy or whimsy is unimaginable to them outside of workshopping for faves.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:42 AM on August 23, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:42 AM on August 23, 2022 [12 favorites]
The point is, it’s only interesting if it’s true.
No it isn't.
posted by Etrigan at 11:09 AM on August 23, 2022 [7 favorites]
No it isn't.
posted by Etrigan at 11:09 AM on August 23, 2022 [7 favorites]
Awwww heck, need a hankie!
Question:
We swop addresses, me because I want to know if Tom makes it
I've seen this before, apparently common in places not the U.S. Does anyone here use it? I like it, but apparently in the U.S. I would be wrong if I used it.
posted by Glinn at 11:33 AM on August 23, 2022
Question:
We swop addresses, me because I want to know if Tom makes it
I've seen this before, apparently common in places not the U.S. Does anyone here use it? I like it, but apparently in the U.S. I would be wrong if I used it.
posted by Glinn at 11:33 AM on August 23, 2022
I don't know if swapping addresses is common, but performing CPR on someone in a situation like that is incredibly intimate, and it was the late 80s/early 90s, so no one had a (mobile) phone. I imagine that is what you'd have done to find out what happened.
posted by ambrosen at 1:22 PM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by ambrosen at 1:22 PM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
To me, the most suspicious part of the narrative is at the beginning, when she dawdles to Paddington and doesn’t even mention giving him a marmalade sandwich.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:57 PM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 3:57 PM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
Swop is acceptable/common in British English, yes.
posted by lokta at 10:46 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by lokta at 10:46 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:01 PM on August 22, 2022