The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22 - Unauthorized ...
The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22 - Unauthorized ...
The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22 - Unauthorized ...
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>The</strong> Outsiders<br />
"How about some of these worms?" he asks, holding a baggie of bait. "Fishing is<br />
like alcoholism. It's an excuse to drink. Or maybe they're trying to level the<br />
playing field. How hard can it be to outsmart a fish?"<br />
"Catching it is kinda fun --" Myles tries.<br />
"Now ice fishing -- alcoholism in the extreme," George continues. "Cold, boring,<br />
worry about falling through the ice. Hey, my girlfriend dumped me. She dumped<br />
my slacker [expletive]."<br />
"I thought you were gonna give her the --" Myles tries.<br />
"Yeah, but she surprised me."<br />
"Irony of ironies. So, technically, you're the loser."<br />
"Shut up," George says, sounding sad.<br />
Toffer survived<br />
the solitary years<br />
by not showing<br />
emotion. 'I didn't<br />
like myself<br />
because I didn't<br />
have anything,'<br />
he says flatly.<br />
'No athletics, no<br />
grades. <strong>The</strong> only<br />
thing that kept<br />
me going was<br />
that I hated them<br />
more than I<br />
hated myself.'<br />
"To the winner goes all the spoils of war," Myles<br />
appeals.<br />
"Shut up," George says, relocating to the sun room.<br />
He lifts Fido, Myles's lizard.<br />
"Watch out, George," Myles says protectively.<br />
George presses Fido into the aquarium to make the<br />
wood chips fly.<br />
"That's cruel, stop it," Myles says, retrieving his<br />
lizard, as George moves on to his lectern, the<br />
Stairmaster.<br />
"That cat is wishing for a tail," George says,<br />
observing Myles's tailless cat.<br />
"To the victor goes the spoils of war," Myles sighs,<br />
mock ruefully.<br />
"Stop defending your tailless cat," says George.<br />
"Anyways, so Colleen broke up with me."<br />
"You already told me that," Myles says. He glances<br />
at his buddy. "I thought that's what you wanted."<br />
"I did," George says, sounding far from sure. Now that he has been rendered<br />
single, what will come of the flirtation he lost his girlfriend for?<br />
<strong>The</strong> new girl, a computer skateboarder chick, likes to spar. George says, "We're<br />
both the same person, but it's hard when you have two sarcastic people making<br />
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/199908<strong>22</strong>mag-boys-social-coping.html (7 of 13) [8/<strong>22</strong>/1999 9:18:<strong>22</strong> PM]