Carthage is three. I am a brunette.

Now and then some friend of a friend mentions that he reads my site on a regular basis. For these people I’m just a fictional character; running into me at a party must be like seeing Elizabeth Bennet hanging out and drinking a beer–or really, let’s face it, Moll Flanders. The me they see here is a superior me: more streamlined, more articulate, wittier. I’m better on paper than in person. (“You are, actually,” the Lad says thoughtfully.)

I managed to insult my professor today, which I offer as proof of my better-on-paper theory. “Brown is considered to be the least interesting hair color,” I said, analyzing a description in The Awakening, then glanced up at her very brown hair and tardily added “…by some people.”