Manolo the Columnist: Pansy from Yellow Box

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

In August, I have some free time before I begin graduate school. A friend has invited me to spend part of it at her family vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. We’ll mostly be at the beach, but I’ll still need some sandals to glam it up a bit for when we go out at night. What do you suggest?

Beth

Manolo says, from the Vineyard of Martha straight into the graduate school? It is like going from the disco directly into the nunnery, only with out the spiritual uplifting.

One minute you are partying down with the beautiful rich peoples, and the next you are the lowly drudge responsible for teaching Introduction to Composition 101 to semi-literate techno-primitives, whose only previous experience with writing has been thumbing out cryptic phrases such as “were u @, bro?”

On the first day, you will stand at the front of your class, filled with enthusiasm, determined to share the mysteries of the five-paragraph essay. By the end of the second week, you will settle for having them consistently indent new paragraphs.

This is to say nothing of the various travails of the graduate student, many of which involve 4 AM trips to the all night copy shop and the ramen noodles, lots of ramen noodles.

By Thanksgiving, you will look back on your brief stay on the Vineyard as being the Golden Age of Innocence, when you could wear sandals such as these, the Pansy from Yellow Box, without getting the dirty looks from the members of the Marxist Ladies Auxiliary Discussion Group.

Pansy from Yellow Box

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