by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2007/10/17 13:59 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2007/10/17/5496134.aspx
Overheard at the 31st Internationalization and Unicode conference, nothing technical whatsoever....
I had just met Laura, who works for ACT (the standardizing testing people). At the opening reception at Adobe.
Now I had taken the ACT years ago since I came from the midwest and all. I think I did well, if memory serves, though I doubt it matters now.
But it was fascinating hearing about their interests in Unicode.
Of course I was a bit disturbed about the number of people with names like Laura, Lara, Laurel, and so on.
Not all of those memories are perfect, either. My luck with Lauras and Laras has not been stellar in the past....
When all this was mentioned, the exchange in the title took place, with Laurel.
She smiled, as did I (though my smile was more wistful than hers, obviously!).
Later when I mentioned all this Lara/Dr. Zhivago reference to Stacy, her response was "who?"
Perhaps it should not have shocked me but it did....
Fuck I'm getting old.
Isn't Dr. Zhivago available on NetFlix? :-)
This post brought to you by Z (U+005a, a.k.a. LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z)
# John Cowan on 17 Oct 2007 3:53 PM:
I take it that you don't distinguish in speech between Laura and Lara?
# Tom on 17 Oct 2007 3:59 PM:
I agree. Just he other day I mentioned a piece of the "Who's on First' skit by Abbott & Costello, and the person said "What?"
It prompted my to buy the DVD with the TV episode and make sure ewveryone I knew saw it....
# orcmid on 18 Oct 2007 4:10 PM:
If you really want to feel old, remember seeing that film in the original theatrical release (I think I had just moved from Seattle to Manhattan to work at the first commercial-computer company's galactic headquarters) and joining the generation that had the hots for Julie Christie and/or Omar Sharif (your mileage may vary).
I don't see anyone different when I look in the mirror (need new optics?), but when I see recent works of those actors I wonder, how come they have aged so much? Then I have to face who else has.
[This past summer I attended the 50th reunion of my high-school graduating class and it was startling to see all those older folks who sometimes vaguelly resembled someone I went to school with, some starting as far back as the same elementary school.[
# Simon on 18 Oct 2007 7:02 PM:
I expected this post to be sponsored by U+0416 Ж ;-)
# Michael S. Kaplan on 18 Oct 2007 7:04 PM:
Ah, good one! I didn't think of it, or it would have been!
# Stacy on 19 Oct 2007 4:16 PM:
Too Many Lauras, not enough time! Com'on - who really knows quotes from nefarious movies of an older time - I barely remember quotes from a movie a saw like 4 days ago ... feel old? I mentioned a Dr. Strangelove quote and the person I was talking to was like "Does Dr. Strangelove do SandM?" .... I felt my jaw drop and realized just how old I was ... or how young they were .... YIKERS!! BTW ... are there movies about SandM out now??
# Michael S. Kaplan on 21 Oct 2007 10:55 AM:
Hey Stace,
What's SandM?
Just kidding, I know what it is. Though I haven't sampled much of the field there.
Of course this wasn't about quotes (though I remember all of them; some people like it, some don't -- it averages out), this was about knowing the movie at all. :-)