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Old Mar 11, 2005, 08:33 PM
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Wants2Fly Wants2Fly is offline
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Member Since: Jul 2004
Location: Southeast Florida
Posts: 3,355
IG -- I agree with 1Day's suggestion that you really don't know what this comment meant because you don't know the context of the conversation.

I teach communication, and a very basic critical tool is that students are not allowed to analyze communication on the basis of their "gut-level" responses: they have to significant social research to understand the social and historical context of anything we anlayze.

I can't even remember all the times I've wound up feeling like an idiot because I overhead something, filled in the blanks from my own point of view, and the "truth" was that my interpretation was so wrong that I was embarrassed.

This is your own description of what occurred: " "the guy next door also likes this little cat." There was some silence and she then said "He has a pretty good personality but that's it!"

The topic might even have changed during that "long silence." As in -- guy next door also likes this little cat."

Friend: "Remember the trouble you got yourself into with Dennis. He loved cats, and he treated you like cats***t."

"He has a nice personality but that's it." (to reassure friend she was not getting herself into trouble again!)

We just don't know what went on during that "long silence." Jeez, 17 minutes of silence on a tape got Nixon thrown out of office!
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