Overheard recently in a department store, while Gina, Haden, and I were shopping for some children’s clothes. A woman, 40-something, and her son, maybe 10 or 11, discuss sizes with a sales clerk:
Clerk: We have those, but only in a “Husky.”
Woman: [Emphatically] Oh, no, no. He’s anorexic skinny–concentration camp skinny.
Son: ???
Woman: It’s okay: skinny is good.
How many things are wrong with this conversation? The flippant use of “anorexic”? The even more grievously flippant use of “concentration camp”? Or is it that maxim at the end (and its unspoken converse). For the record, the boy was of normal size–neither particularly skinny nor at all overweight for his age. The mother I would describe as verging on gaunt.
A note to the college bound: psychiatry is a growth industry, and ever will be.