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The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!

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Stabby McStabberson
12/30/08

In reply to Family Secrets
mary higgins clark struck a $64mil 4-book deal a couple of years ago, so if she were my mom i'd pay close attention to what she is doing since she's obviously doing something right.

also, carol higgens clark went to my alma mater so i'm legally and morally bound to love her. and i do.
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spinningjenny
12/30/08

@Stabby McStabberson loves Gordon Ramsay's potty mouth: Yeah MHC!
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Stabby McStabberson
12/30/08

@spinningjenny: howdy fellow MoHo!
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Ratinski
12/30/08

In reply to Family Secrets
After I finished off the children's section of my small town library at the tender age of 11, the librarian started me on Mary Higgins Clark, which I loved. Some of those stories still stick with me now. Only read one of Carol's and don't remember being that into it, but I may try it again sometime soon.
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rosasparks
12/30/08

In reply to Family Secrets
My dad is into their books. I'll have to tell him they don't have a contentious relationship. He had made up a long, convoluted story, similar to their novels, about how they must secretly steal from one another, or some such.
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rocknrollunicorn
12/30/08

In reply to Family Secrets
That's awesome. I haven't read any of Mary's books since I was a teenager but I remember enjoying them. Didn't know about Carol but it seems like a fun experiment for a later date, reading one novel by each...
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Crabby Cakes
12/30/08

@rocknrollunicorn: I LOVED her books when I was a teen. Loves Music, Loves to Dance is my fave.

It did bother me as I got older that the female protagonist ALWAYS had to be rescued by the handsome love interest. She always fell for the ruse and could never get out on her own.
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rocknrollunicorn
12/30/08

@Crabby Cakes wants some Dance Biscuits.: @mslewis: Well I definitely need to re-visit them now. And probably throw Mary's book down in a huff of feminist rage. Ha.
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Lowti
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
Oh noeeees, I'm sleeping with my brother!
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AnnoyingFemaleLeadVoiceover
12/04/08

@Lowti: Ha!
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sequined
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
Yeah I guess if my family is one that gladly welcomes in little new siblings a few times a year and pampers them and coddles them and then, when it's time for them to get benefits, the big matriarch (at the behest of... um... the government) says we have to run this family on 30% less money than we currently do and then all the happy little children are told that not only can we not have benefits, we are cut out of the fucking family forever, then yes. My workplace is a lot like that.
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NewsBunny
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
Second time I'm saying this today:

I would so fuck Dwight.*

*my husband is out of town and I'm loooooooonely
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Ratinski
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
See, my office is more like a bad sitcom.

You have two cute and sarcastic ladies, one young but relatively sane and polite new hire, two crazy British guys plus one crazy Australian who throw stuff at each other and make inappropriate comments until one of the aforementioned sarcastic ladies shut them down, and an awkward boss who has never really gotten over the fact that he was picked on in school and continually tries to be a cool and hip boss and failing miserably.

I should sell this concept to a network. Sara Rue could play me.
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Suffragettestream the Office Hussy
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
I'm tired of people saying that only children are spoilt. I had very strict parents. Lots of people with siblings grew up with far more spoiling
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Princess Leela
12/04/08

@Fashion Police: As a fellow only child, I agree ... but I would make the distinction that I DO think many or most onlies are coddled/overprotected (especially if your mom has been told from the time you were born that it's too dangerous for her to have any more kids! whee!).

I have struggled in previous jobs with feeling threatened by the stereotypical uber-efficient female coworkers, the same age as me, who I perceived to be "competitors". One would think this would mean I had a sister who was always more successful than me, but oddly enough it doesn't. Unless she was the one that never got born.

Totally had the neurotic-oversharey-mom boss, though, at my last job. Trapped beneath her, her sidekick who was directly above me in the food chain (see above) and the prez of the organization who was also momlike but more like the scary brand of mom who you can never, EVER please (maybe more mother-in-law-like?) -- I lasted six months.
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Ailatan
12/04/08

@Fashion Police: I'm tired as well, only children have to put up with a lot of this (I think it's because most people would like that, secretly)
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Understater
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
I concur. My female supervisor smothers me. My much older female co-worker mothers me. My younger, brother-like co-worker receives the brunt of my frustration. I am generally rather defiant at work and I think that has a lot to do with the restrictions that have been imposed on me ala my childhood. In sum: I'm a nutjob.
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Calluna Vulgaris
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
I'm an only child, so I can't say that I hate my co-workers because they remind me of an annoying younger sibling. Maybe I hate my co-workers because they remind me of former annoying co-workers?
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Scout
12/04/08

@CatherineMorland: maybe you just hate the "co" as in "cooperation & diplomacy".

I'm an only child and will admit that I always think my way is the most viable, cost-effective and obvious way available....any dissent is taken with a scowl and muttering underneath my breath Lisa Simpson-style "Stupid, stupid, stupid" he he
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Calluna Vulgaris
12/04/08

@Scout: Yeah, that's sounds pretty accurate. Although I also think that a product of my only child-ness has been a serious lack of competitiveness. I've never played any team sport and just can't ever muster up the energy to even care about a card game. My friend, on the other hand, is one of six girls and she freaks out if you beat her to the top of the stairs.
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Scout
12/04/08

@CatherineMorland: HA! beat her to the top of the stairs 'tis amusing

Sadly, I have a competitive streak - I guess it comes from years of being alone and telling myself I was the best and brightest, without any real "competition" in the way of siblings. I may treat everyone as "siblings" then. eek

but ha ha anyway : )
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lizzzz
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
Oh crappy science, how intuitively interesting you can be. GIVE ME DATA, OR GIVE ME DEATH!!!
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badmutha
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
It seems there is always so old woman at the office who hates me. Does this reflect my issues that I had with my Mother as a teen, or is there a constant supply of hateful old ladies who resent younger women? Tough to know for sure.
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Cerridwen
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
My work is nothing like my family. Partly because I don't have someone in my family who is a hateful, self-pitying, Cassandra-complex-having, antagonistic, aggressive vortex of negative, bitter energy. (Yeah, I'm literally listening to her bitchin' while I type this...I think I need to go take my lunch break to get away from the noise. Or down some Extra Strength Tylenol.) I don't dislike this woman because I have Mommy issues. I dislike her because she sucks.
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Blueberry26
12/04/08

In reply to The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!
I'm the youngest, and I'm terrified of change and getting fired. come to think of it, though, when I was little I was always scared my mom would have another baby and I would be replaced as the favorite. very interesting ...
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robot ninja spy
12/04/08

@Blueberry26: I'm the opposite; I'm the youngest and I love change and while I'm terrified of being fired in this economy, the threat of it is something I never got too bent out of shape over because I thought of it as a chance to be somewhere new and better.
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