article suggests men should avoid HP books at the beach

[Caius Marcius]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "A.J." <ajhuflpuf at y...> wrote:
> http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1075038.html
> 
> It says that single women find men reading HP uncool.
> 
>   Heavens, look how many females there are on HP4GU.  You'd think 
the 
> article author would notice it could be a conversation starter for 
> lots of women!
> 
I'm reminded of an old Jules Feiffer cartoon from the 60s- this meek 
sensitive guy tries to pick up an attractive young woman on the beach 
who he happens to note is reading Proust - he begins with some inane 
chatter about the weather and then tries to establish his 
intellectual bona-fides by discoursing literately to her about the 
great French novelist, until the woman rudely tells him to get lost. 

Totally humiliated, our hero withdraws but consoles himself with the 
idea that the woman probably wanted to be left alone, and therefore 
wasn't willing to tolerate anyone's approach - until he hears (via 
off-panel balloons) another conversation that starts off identically 
to his ("You'd think there'd be a breeze down here by the ocean, but 
there's not") until it comes to the Reading Material. "P - R - O - 
U...." says the male interlocuter. "Oh, I don't feel like reading, 
let's go for a swim." says the woman. The penultimate panel shows the 
young woman with the second young man - who of course proves to be 
the  veritable incarnation of the beach-bum stud.  "It's gonna be a 
long summer" sighs our hapless hero.

THE MORAL: Reading material, no matter how meritorious or 
meretricious, has little effect on how well one socializes at the 
beachfront.

   - CMC