I think a man might have a harder time executing the KB than a woman because gender assumptions make it harder for a man who won't go away to come off as non-threatening.

That's why it works for men. It is very threatening to have a man standing just off to the side, clearly expecting something and being very focused. It's not a nice technique. At best it is passively aggressive, but it is aggressive.

But the writer was a woman. so was the friend she described as using it. People tend to get mulish about being threatened. The writer was of course exaggerating about calling the method "foolproof". It is Slate, after all. Using absolute language where it does not belong is one of the things they are best known for. But I suspect it would work more women than for men. When a women does it is annoying, but not threatening. While many would have Connie's reaction, a harassed clerk with too much to do might find it easier to give in - especially in cases (unlike most of those cited in the article) where what was being asked was reasonable and the clerk was just being a dick. (In the article, it was mostly the KB who was being a dick, asking way more than was reasonable.) If a man does the KB I'm guessing that Connie's reaction would be much more probable, with a large side of calling security.

I wonder if the writer of that article has children. If so, someone should teach that technique to them.

What is "red pill ideology"? I'm sure it's a Matrix reference, but my memory of the details of that movie are fuzzy and I can't quite figure it out from the context in which I'm reading it.

Has anyone watched the FX version of The Bridge? It's on Hulu now so I mainlined the entire first season over the past week.

I think I caught about two-thirds of The Bridge.

I liked it, but I haven't bothered to re-watch, or look up the episodes I missed.

I thought it was interesting at first and then halfway through the season it really kicked into gear.

I would think using KB on an airline clerk would get TSA involved if it went on long enough.

I have used a variant of KB where I back off a couple of steps and plant myself, but I don't stare at the clerk. I'm not trying to browbeat them with my Terrible Stare but waiting courteously, hopefully acknowledging that the clerk/whomever has work that needs to be done before my request can be addressed.

For myself, I can cope with being stared at. If I have time, I stare back. If someone on the phone is using the silent treatment on me after stating that whatever I've said is unacceptable--so long as what I said is the truth--I am happy to let the silence run for a minute or so, then I ask if there's anything else I can do. Though I try to remember to apologize for the trouble.

I drove down to Portland on Saturday morning to meet a friend (and some of her friends) from Eugene for Portland Pride. We had a good time last night, but very tired...and ended up with six people sleeping in the hotel room. Madness. My feet are killing me today...and it took four hours to drive home so I'm trying to convince myself not to go to bed at 6PM. :)

In my ongoing oversharing of my embarassingly stupid moves: I was paying bills online and watching The Writers' Room (which I love). Successfully got all the payments and transfers set up and instead of closing Quicken or the browser window, I stopped the Game of Thrones episodes and deleted it.

I assume it'll re-air at some point and I can catch the end (because that was super interesting), but argh, wtf brain?

I don't think I believe in the Kindly Brontosaurus. It sounds like magical thinking to me - I did this thing and got this presumably unlikely result that I wanted, must be due to the thing I did! Didn't finish reading the article, though.

The red pill thing is posit-ing that feminism is the illusory world you choose by taking the blue pill and men are the ones who are really oppressed. Something like that.

What movie, msbelle?

-t, the 50th.