It was so sad when they went from Garrison Keilor's Mr. Blue, which was the best advice column ever, to Cary Tennis, who, whatever his gifts and merits as a human being, is a horrible advice columnist.
Yeah -- he sucks on the basic 'answering the question' metric. If you want to dither about what does 'rape' really mean, fine, but do it after you've told the idiot who wrote in to run for the hills. If it's an advice column, you have to actually give advice.
I just plain don't read Salon anymore. I used to read his column avidly when I did, though, primarily because of the non-answering thing, as stated above.
This particular answer strikes me as somewhat overlong and perhaps even insensitive -- perhaps some good old fashioned Dan Savage paternalism was in order here.
Really, this called for an answer along the lines of "What are you, stupid? Get out NOW." The story the guy told the letter-writer was not only scary, but pretty likely false in some regards -- who here thinks that a rape-crisis center is going to let a guy with a history like that volunteer, regardless of how credibly he assures them that he's all better now. This was really not a reasonable situation for one of Tennis' 'Far be it from me to judge anyone' answers.
I agree, LB, the story sounds like exactly the sort of tale a known predator would concut if he were trying to work the reformed angle to his advantage. Tennis alludes to some extratextual conversation with the woman—my first question would be, "Have you ever seen him working at this clinic? Have you spoken with the clinicians about him? And if you did, did you slap them all upside the head for betraying their mission (helping victimized women who may not be psychologically prepared to accept the fact of a reformed rapist)?" Something along those lines.
I'm also intrigued at how the author of the letter does discusses all the women as "ugly", etc. It completely brings to mind that the woman writing the letter is probably very self-conscious about her looks as well.
It was so sad when they went from Garrison Keilor's Mr. Blue, which was the best advice column ever, to Cary Tennis, who, whatever his gifts and merits as a human being, is a horrible advice columnist.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 07-28-05 5:04 PM
Yeah -- he sucks on the basic 'answering the question' metric. If you want to dither about what does 'rape' really mean, fine, but do it after you've told the idiot who wrote in to run for the hills. If it's an advice column, you have to actually give advice.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 07-28-05 5:20 PM
I actually really like Cary Tennis, primarily -- though not solely -- because he never answers anybody's questions.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 07-28-05 6:29 PM
because usually -- who the fuck cares? That exclamation is implicit in his nonresponses, and I enjoy it.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 07-28-05 6:33 PM
Also, what's with the herringbone fedora? I thought those were now worn solely by hip-hoppers and fashionistas.
Posted by L. | Link to this comment | 07-28-05 8:19 PM
His answer is "Just watch a brief advertisement to get a FREE Site Pass for today."
Posted by ogmb | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 1:40 AM
That's what he tells everyone.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 2:11 AM
That's what he tells everyone.
Today my answer was "no."
No means NO.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 9:24 AM
I just plain don't read Salon anymore. I used to read his column avidly when I did, though, primarily because of the non-answering thing, as stated above.
This particular answer strikes me as somewhat overlong and perhaps even insensitive -- perhaps some good old fashioned Dan Savage paternalism was in order here.
Posted by Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 9:28 AM
Really, this called for an answer along the lines of "What are you, stupid? Get out NOW." The story the guy told the letter-writer was not only scary, but pretty likely false in some regards -- who here thinks that a rape-crisis center is going to let a guy with a history like that volunteer, regardless of how credibly he assures them that he's all better now. This was really not a reasonable situation for one of Tennis' 'Far be it from me to judge anyone' answers.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 9:36 AM
I agree, LB, the story sounds like exactly the sort of tale a known predator would concut if he were trying to work the reformed angle to his advantage. Tennis alludes to some extratextual conversation with the woman—my first question would be, "Have you ever seen him working at this clinic? Have you spoken with the clinicians about him? And if you did, did you slap them all upside the head for betraying their mission (helping victimized women who may not be psychologically prepared to accept the fact of a reformed rapist)?" Something along those lines.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 10:02 AM
My initial thought was... "He probably uses that line on ALL the women he manipulates into having sex, you stupid twit."
Posted by tweedledopey | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 10:09 AM
I'm also intrigued at how the author of the letter does discusses all the women as "ugly", etc. It completely brings to mind that the woman writing the letter is probably very self-conscious about her looks as well.
Posted by tweedledopey | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 10:11 AM
Savage would have set her straight.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 10:12 AM
Oh that's a good idea. But I think the letter was as long as his entire column usually is.
Posted by tweedledopey | Link to this comment | 07-29-05 10:14 AM