Question and Answer

[mrissa]

yhlee and pegkerr and several other people, I forget who, have been answering the "five fictional characters you had a crush on as a kid" question. I was reading along with interest and having a hard time coming up with any besides Egon from "Ghostbusters," because my interest in geeks apparently started somewhere around or before my fifth birthday. "Ghostbusters" came out in 1984, the year I turned six, and there was already no question in my mind which Ghostbuster was the appropriate one.

But then it hit me: the Westmark trilogy. Like, half the male cast of the Westmark trilogy. Florian, Justin, Stock, Theo. Keller. I totally sympathized with Sparrow on the point of Keller.

Is this a disturbing answer? I think it might be.

So anyway, I was answering a question redredshoes had asked about chocolate, and it got me wondering: what food products have you bought that disappointed you? They don't have to be disgusting things, just things that weren't nearly as good as they sounded. Mine (in the comments to the last entry) was Haute Fudge's Grand Marnier fudge. (The kind of fudge you heat and pour over ice cream, not the kind you slice and eat.) It's fine, but...who wants Grand Marnier fudge to be fine? So it lurks in the corner of the fridge, getting finished slowly, because...meh. And we can do better than "meh" for desserts around here.

How about you? What did you think was going to be wonderful that wasn't?

Comments

[mkhobson.livejournal.com]

Oh, hell yeah, Egon was Teh Sexy. All the way. Though about the time Ghostbusters came out, I was a little older, and assholish, wisecracking Peter Venkman characters were starting to turn my crank too. Now that I'm much older, Dan Akroyd has them both beat cold. Ten years from now, I'll be having hot fantasies about Rick Moranis.

*sigh.* Keymaster.

M

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Dan Aykroyd is always Mother to me, from "Sneakers," so...not a sex symbol.

I do love "Sneakers" and Mother. But...not a sex symbol.

Meep! I had forgotten that Dr. Hathaway from "Real Genius" was in "Ghostbusters," probably because I haven't seen "Ghostbusters" as an adult and didn't see "Real Genius" until I was an older teenager. (And speaking of fictional crushes and wisecracking: Val Kilmer as Chris Knight. Awwww yeah.)

[mkhobson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but did you ever see Grosse Point Blank, in which Dan Ackroyd was a hit-man? He was pretty cute in that movie.

I can't believe I'm arguing for the sexiness of Dan Ackroyd.

Anyway, back to geeky sex-gods ... let's not forget the Professor from Gilligan's Island! Smart and clean cut ... ROWR! I thought Christopher Lloyd in the Back To The Future movies was pretty scrumptious. But that attraction was not pure "geek", there were also aspects of my fascination with "crazy" too.

Which leads me to some deep psychological analysis of geek-fascination in women. Is it that we're attracted to men who are fundamentally unavailable (because they're thinking about so much other stuff)? Or is it that geeks are non-threatening because they are more likely to be cogitating over quadratic functions than trying to pressure one into hopping into the sack? Or is it that geeks are smart, and we believe they're more likely to take us seriously? Or is it that we feel that we'll have a lot in common, because we secretly believe that we share the same kinds of insecurities?

All the fictional heroes in my books are geeks, or geekish. I can't fathom how any woman would be attracted to a Conan, or a Hercules, or even a James Bond. They're too flashy. Give me a social retard any day.

M

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Or is it that geeks are non-threatening because they are more likely to be cogitating over quadratic functions than trying to pressure one into hopping into the sack?

Who are you hanging out with who is trying to pressure quadratic functions into the sack?

Heee.

[mkhobson.livejournal.com]

Um, remember, we're talking about *geeks* here ....

But yeah, you're right, I could have phrased that better. ;-)

M

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What alarming reasons for being attracted to geeks!

I take them more seriously.
I know we'll have a lot in common because I am one, too.
I don't find them non-threatening at all -- well -- not the bad kind of threatening, usually, but usually when people say non-threatening, they mean not-sexually-aggressive. Um, no.
They're often quite available.

And when a guy who gets that intense about computers/math/fiction/history/etc. gets that intense about me, this is what we know as a good thing. A very good thing.