"I've Divorced Better Men Than You"

by Glenn Kelman | 2 Comments

For those of you struggling to develop an alluring description of your listing, consider the personals ads of the British in The London Review of Books:

–> A woman begins: “I’ve divorced better men than you.”
–> Another says: “Tell me I’m pretty, then watch me cling.”
–> A third writes an ad inspired by a date with someone who named his privates after Asquith, the British World War I prime minister.
asquith.jpg
Writing an ad to sell something you once must have loved, and inviting strangers in to see it, isn’t so different from a personals ad. What’s different is the sense the British have that something must have gone wrong, when they gave back Hong Kong, or broke up, or moved away. Whenever they’re optimistic, they sound fake, and whenever they sound fake, they sound like us, like Americans, selling real estate. (Thanks to Chris for sending this article along with a quote of what Ron Artest said to Ben Wallace to trigger the 2004 Pistons-Pacers brawl.)

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Discussion

  • candybags

    “Whenever they’re optimistic, they sound fake, and whenever they sound fake, they sound like us, like Americans, selling real estate.”

    Interesting observation. And I would say that it is correct. But that’s what happens when you live in one of the most debt-ridden, cash-strapped, overcrowded nations in the EU – one that also just happens to be governed by a bunch of lying, sheister crooks (read Tony Blair). Ou sont les leaders of yesteryear? (read Winston Churchill) And guess what? On and off, I’ve spent half my life in the UK (college, graduate studies) and the other half of my life here in the US. When I came here in the mid 80s, there was NOTHING that wasn’t possible. I have made a helluva lot of money here. I have enjoyed every day that I have lived here. With it being Thanksgiving and all, I will say that I am truly thankful for the opportunity to have been able to live here in the US. But now I am seeing shades of Britain and it makes me want to puke. From the excessive taxes to the inability of this vast country to breed a true leader. Clinton in the White House with his pants down. Beleaguered Bush with a war that was seemingly “dropped” in his lap. There is an air of demotivation in this country now and that makes me sad. It is beginning to look a lot like ….. England.

  • http://www.searchingseattleblog.com ARDELL

    Happy Thanksgiving to you all at Redfin!