When my mother was not yet married to her now-husband, I was stumped as what to call him. He was in his 60s and rather portly and serious-looking - not a boyfriend. He had a partner - a partner in his dentistry office. I sometimes went with "gentleman friend."
I'll be fine. I'll be your bounty, Jubal Early. And I'll just fade away.
River ,'Objects In Space'
Spike's Bitches 44: It's about the rules having changed.
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
flea - Oct 07, 2009 11:41:47 am PDT #25600 of 30000
information libertarian
erikaj - Oct 07, 2009 11:41:52 am PDT #25601 of 30000
Always Anti-fascist!
Like when you're talking about somebody you go to the mall with and say "Nice earrings...my girlfriend Cheryl has them in black." I used to do this more when I had fewer gay friends. Also "hey, girlfriend!" seems to have met the same fate as "posse"
Barb - Oct 07, 2009 11:43:45 am PDT #25602 of 30000
“Not dead yet!”
When my mother was not yet married to her now-husband, I was stumped as what to call him. He was in his 60s and rather portly and serious-looking - not a boyfriend
When Lewis and I lived together, before we were married, his mother used to refer to me as his "special friend."
Which caused us no end of amusement.
Scrappy - Oct 07, 2009 11:46:56 am PDT #25603 of 30000
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
After our first 10 years together, our parents started lobbying for better titles for us. Once when my FiL asked me "What should I introduce you as? This is Jason's..." I said "Reason for living." He used that for quite a while.
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Oct 07, 2009 11:46:59 am PDT #25604 of 30000
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
Do Americans not use 'partner' very widely (for straight relationships), then? I hear it as much for long-term straight relationships as for gay ones. It's handy to be able to say 'my partner' and not necessarily have to come out in the process.
It's an especially useful term among people who would sound silly announcing that they had a 'girlfriend'. Such as my 53-year-old father. (He tried 'lady friend' out once, but it made us all fall about laughing, so he stopped.)
Steph L. - Oct 07, 2009 11:48:47 am PDT #25605 of 30000
I look more rad than Lutheranism
Also "hey, girlfriend!" seems to have met the same fate as "posse"
Passe?
Zenkitty - Oct 07, 2009 11:51:28 am PDT #25606 of 30000
Every now and then, I think I might actually be a little odd.
Anybody remember the brief life of POSSLQ - "Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quaters"? It might have caught on if it had been pronounceable. And not stupid.
tommyrot - Oct 07, 2009 11:52:30 am PDT #25607 of 30000
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Do Americans not use 'partner' very widely (for straight relationships), then?
Hmmm. When a straight person says "partner," I'm never sure if they're talking about a romantic partner or a business partner.
P.M. Marc - Oct 07, 2009 11:52:59 am PDT #25608 of 30000
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
In British Columbia a person who has lived and cohabited with another person, for a period of at least 2 years is considered a common law spouse acording to the "Estate Administration Act"
This is surprisingly common amongst my relatives.
amych - Oct 07, 2009 11:53:47 am PDT #25609 of 30000
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
I remember POSSLQ in the sense of "I heard it mocked", but not in the sense of "I actually heard anyone anywhere ever use it with a straight face". (The straightness of it being part of the problem, of course).