A Grateful Letter to a Softlinker
OK, I’ll admit it. I’ve been a bit of a drama queen during my last three writeups. Granted, this past week may not have been the best week of my life, but nobody died, right?
So did I have to get so intense about it? Well, thanks to a well-placed softlink on one of those writeups, I now know that the answer is a resounding “yes.” Why?
Because I’m MELODRAMATIC.
Now, I’m normally not a big fan of using softlinks to get a message across. I mean, if you’ve got something valid to say, what’s the harm in at least attaching your name to it? So when I saw a softlink to a node called Mom... Dad... I'm MELODRAMATIC!, I figured it would be an empty nodeshell someone was using to take an anonymous potshot –- deserved or not –- at one of my writeups.
Boy, was I wrong. Turns out, the node contains the script from a hilarious comedy skit dating back to 2001 in which a young man makes a shocking confession to his parents. I’ll just paraphrase here, but basically, he walks in and tells his folks he’s got some news for them. He puts some “melodramatic” violin music on the stereo, and asks his Mom and Dad if they’ll love him, no matter what.
Concerned, they ask why. To which he responds, “Mom . . . Dad,” then cranks up the volume, “I’m MELODRAMATIC.” Both parents then react with horror as their son strikes his best angst-ridden pose. As he’s leaving, his father asks, “Why couldn’t you just be gay?”
To which the son responds “"Because the ladies love it, Dad! And I love the ladies!"
I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. Maybe that’s because I just couldn’t get a picture out of my head of Cuba Gooding, Jr. cranking up the volume to "Show Me The Money" in Jerry McGuire. I mean, I could even hear the kid saying MELODRAMATIC the same way Cuba said his catch phrase. But for whatever reason, it made me laugh, and I liked it so much I went ahead and softlinked it to my other two (most recent) melodramatic nodes myself.
I mean, when you’re right, you’re right. So to that softlinker, whoever you are, I want to thank you for reminding me of Sergeant Hulka’s immortal words in Stripes -- "Lighten Up, Frances.”