Some might argue that it's not about a man dumping you, it's the way he dumps you that matters. But don't believe that — he's toast however he plays it. No woman ever giggled dreamily and said, “You should get his number — he gives great elbow.” If you dump a woman, whatever she says, however sweet she appears to be about it, she hates you — do you get that? You have rejected her, probably completely wasted her time, and you want to remain “friends”? Fine, so long as you don't mind having “friends” who would happily knit jumpers with your intestines. Besides, female dumpees are usually too busy in the aftermath of a dumping to sit down and think rationally about whether a man has been nice or not. They have to get on with the really important stuff (slashing tires, burning down houses, eventually getting arrested). It's a nightmare; there's just so much to do.
When a woman dumps a man it's a different matter, and never more so than in Germany, where these days you can call upon a company called Separation Services, run by a man nicknamed Terminator, who, for a small fee, will do your dumping for you, offering a range of services from “sensitive phone call” to “personalized house visit” (the deluxe package featuring a “detailed explanation” about why they are getting dumped). At first I thought this was dreadful — dumping is a terrible, painful thing for both parties and it should be handled with extreme sensitivity and delicacy, in the pub in front of all your friends. Then I noticed that the vast majority of clients were women, which says one of two things: women have become cowardly about doing the decent thing (ie., telling a man he's “not good enough” straight to his face), or women are finally turning the tables, fighting back — making men the Dumped Icons.
It's never pretty, but men should remember that if they dump well (kindly and with grace), it could be possible that, just a few tears and death threats later (perhaps a touch of light stalking), most women will be able to move on and rediscover the joys of single life. By contrast, dump badly (be thoughtless, even cruel) and you will be in danger of turning your ex into a Dumped Icon (DI), a cautionary tale for all women, and all hell will break loose. We have all heard the horror stories about DIs, and must accept there might be mitigating circumstances. For instance, Matt Damon dumped Minnie Driver on the Oprah show, which seems a bit mean -- but, as I don't know the full facts, I'd be the last person to judge Damon, labeling him a big-toothed cowardly weasel with all the morality of a stale croissant. Likewise, Daniel Day-Lewis dumped Isabelle Adjani by fax (“A pioneer in his field,” a man I know remarked). And Billy Bob Thornton ran off and married Angelina Jolie without even telling live-in lover Laura Dern (tricky one, this — heterosexual though I am, I might have done the same myself).
The point is, in all these situations, as with most cases, the DI was female, which is why Separation Services and Herr Terminator could turn out to be so important. First, sad but true, some people out there are cling-ons, who will never let go of a relationship however hard you try to shake them off. It's like the minute they hear the phrase ‘We need to talk’, they grow tentacles that attach themselves to you, sucking your will out of your body, and professional help may be needed to get away from people like me (er, them). Perhaps it is also true that, as Terminator says, it makes sense to have help on hand for the “endings” of relationships, just as you have dating agencies for the “beginnings.” I agree, but let's not stop there — some of us need help with the “middles” too (get someone else in to do the sex and arguing).
Primarily, however, this could be a long overdue gender triumph. After all, the DI, the wronged woman, has long been a female cliche. Even Sex and the City portrayed Carrie being dumped by Post-it note by some grumpy Berger. And yet where are all the iconic male dumpees? With Separation Services up and running, it can't be long before Germany is full of woeful men standing in bars holding foaming tankards, telling each other war stories about how their last relationship ended when The Terminator turned up: “She paid extra for a detailed explanation.” Today Germany, tomorrow the world.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would