True that. Also, their car-centered, fast-food gobbling lifestyle is similar to that of many in the US.

Tell them how many languages I speak. Works every time.

The kinds of dudes I meet don't even deserve to know where I live.

I am the worst kind of cat lady: a catless one. Ergo, every cat is my cat.

Sometimes it's the only sane, healthy choice one can make given the circumstances.

Look up Marvin Gaye's old jam "Got to Give It Up" in that case — a much better song that "inspired" Thicke & Co.

I didn't say it was a good dance beat.

He was critiquing Western, Eurocentric beauty standards. The video IIRC had some amusing innuendo with dancing walnuts.

If you are all about the dance beat, and don't speak or understand the language, this kind of "music" is just great. But don't ask your English teacher what they're really saying.

Compared to this filth, Sir Mix-a-Lot was dropping some poetry.

I also wonder how old I have to be, or at least to look, before sleazy men will stop hitting on me in public. Apparently I'm not there yet, unfortunately.

Looks? Hah! What I am most concerned about is preserving my MIND. Trust me on this. If you lose your mind, you don't even know who that is in the mirror.

But what part of Mesopotamia are you from?

I sometimes like to guess but keep it to myself, and see whether I was right or not. Or as has been said, let it come up in context.

One of my favorite variations on this is the person who instantly loses interest if you give the "wrong" answer. "No, I'm not Nigerian, sorry to disappoint you!"

How does the cronut compare with Au Bon Pain's Creme de Fleur?

If some guy who is not technically European, or is of borderline European-ness in some books — for example comes from some former colony or piece of now-defunct empire — starts going on about how "European" he is — I have learned that that's an early warning sign and I'd do well to just bail at that point. Actual…

Bacon flavor.

The greatest good that I can see coming out of this whole kerfuffle is that it will lead some people back to the great song it bites off.

I have been saying for almost the last 10 years that the only new music that doesn't suck IMO is usually trying very, very hard to sound like old music.