Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2006 14:38:36 GMT -5
WTF? No thread for this great book??
This was always one of my favorites. Laine's snobbery provides plenty of snark. I love her and her 2-week relationship with long-haired, two-year older boyfriend King. I love her landing a job at a fancy boutique for the summer, running the cash register at Flowers and Bows. I love her cruelty towards Pete Black. I love her attitude at SMS. I love her chic and grown up choice of reading material--Spectra is a pretty name, isnt it?
It's her own fault--who would choose spending a week in Stoneybook (where the person she's visiting is in school for the most part) over Florida or a skiing trip or staying in New York with other friends who are out of school with you?
The Valentines Dance--another great dance between the Winter Wonder Dance and the Final Fling. The incidents at the dance were a lot of fun to read. I enjoyed that Laine ditched Pete for a dance with a seventh-grader, how Stacey got Laine to shut up about immature sixth-graders by telling her that Jessi is in sixth grade (is Laine impressed by Jessi?).
So--it's pretty much implied that Pete Black is a dork in this book? When did he transform from one of the cooler kids (who sat at Stacey's and Claud's table in the early books) to a dork? Oh, and wearing his old sneakers with a suit? Nice.
However, this book to me, always serves as a foreshadow to Stacey's own snobbery 20 or so books later. She almost becomes a Laine clone, well, at least a poor-man's version of Laine.
And lots of pop culture and early 90s references: The Limited, HSN, Fiorrucci, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Joy Luck Club
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on May 23, 2006 15:46:16 GMT -5
About the Jessi comment: Laine had just said that 6th graders have no muscle control, and Jessi, being a dancer, obviously does. I think Stacey was just trying to point out that fact!
I can't say this was one of my favorite books, but I enjoy it all the same. I agree that Pete seemed out of character, though.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on May 23, 2006 21:32:55 GMT -5
I love her and her 2-week relationship with long-haired, two-year older boyfriend King. I love how Stacey points out that fifteen-year-olds can't drive or vote or anything, so who cares that he's fifteen?
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on May 23, 2006 22:23:53 GMT -5
^ I thought that was Kristy... ah well, it's a minor detail but still a great call whoever said it. I think they should've made King a bit older so he was able to drive, although he was from NYC and probably wouldn't have driven anyway (don't know much about all that). Also, Stacey who's dated plenty of fifteen yr olds herself is unlikely to be particularly impressed because Laine's boyfriend is fifteen.
Also, when did snobby, sophisticated Laine become such a raging dork? The King of her Heart? Ugh. That's not much better than "dibbly fresh".
I dunno, but he remained a dork in Kristy for President, too. Get it right, ghostwriters!
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on May 24, 2006 9:24:40 GMT -5
^ I'm not sure who said it, but I was too lazy to actually look it up in the book. I do have a copy here, but it's in a plastic bag under my dresser, and I don't feel like spelunking to get to it. Heh.
I was thinking the other day that I like how the BSC think that they made up their usage of the word "fresh." Sorry, girls, but no. It was lame late-'80s/early-'90s slang before you ever appropriated it.
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Post by sotypical42483 on May 24, 2006 11:40:39 GMT -5
Laine was a b*tch in this book but to be fair, Stacey DID kinda force the issue of her going to Stoneybrook. I was surprised the Laine was even such a brat in front of Stacey's mom!
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on May 24, 2006 18:18:04 GMT -5
I was thinking the other day that I like how the BSC think that they made up their usage of the word "fresh." Sorry, girls, but no. It was lame late-'80s/early-'90s slang before you ever appropriated it. THANK YOU! I'd never heard anyone actually use the word other than in old try-hard teen magazines, but I was certain that slang wasn't invented by the BSC. I don't think the negative "stale" was ever really used outside the BSC though. Correct me if I'm wrong. The BSC-slang didn't really last for many books, though. Poor Mallory was overrun with "dibble" and New York, New York had the expression "chilly" on every other page, but perhaps they realised how dorky the made up words were and stopped using them.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on May 25, 2006 2:32:12 GMT -5
^ Off topic alert: A writer's comment from a Simpson's comic: "I took . . . slang expressions that I remembered from my golden youth . . . because making up new-fangled slanguage . . . sounds ultra-fakey. [From my youth] is where "Don't have a cow" comes from" (p. 40). (Simpson's comics Royale)
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lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,163
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Post by lilafowler on Jun 25, 2006 21:18:31 GMT -5
I chose this book to aid my procrastination of studying anthro (last time it was Kristy + Bart = ?), and it? Is so great. A lot of people in her thread in the Characters forum compare her to Lila Fowler, so it shouldn't be too surprising that I love her bitchiness, but I enjoyed Kristy smacking her down. The first time I read it, I thought "Your boss has my sympathies" was about the sassiest comeback ever. I also actually remember looking up the words "gossamer" and "limpid" in the dictionary.
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Post by morbiddadestiny on Jun 26, 2006 11:31:43 GMT -5
HEY, HEART. IT'S ME, BABE.
what a loser.
also, i don't think that pete black is actually supposed to be a dork. laine just thinks she's way too cool for those kids.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Jun 26, 2006 17:37:53 GMT -5
HEY, HEART. IT'S ME, BABE. what a loser. Total word. Can't believe she thought she was so cool.
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Post by hitzpink on Jun 26, 2006 20:53:28 GMT -5
also, i don't think that pete black is actually supposed to be a dork. laine just thinks she's way too cool for those kids. I never thought that Pete Black was a dork until I read this book. He cried (or at least teared up. but either way...) because Laine danced with another boy! He'd known her for, what, a few days? I've held that against him ever since and now he's pretty much a weird, semi-creepy dork to me.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Jun 26, 2006 20:57:28 GMT -5
^ I really think Pete's personality changed according to whatever role he was playing in the book. He was way overused. In Kristy for President, he was a dork as well, but in the earlier books, he sat at the "cool kids" table with Stacey, Claudia etc.
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lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,163
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Post by lilafowler on Jun 26, 2006 21:57:28 GMT -5
^I sort of thought of him as like Screech from Saved by the Bell -- the token nerd in the cool kids' clique.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Jun 26, 2006 22:35:13 GMT -5
^ hahaha, nah, I imagine him cooler than Screech. Winston Egbert in SVH was more of the Screech-type IMO.
I can't even imagine a Pete Black type. Maybe he was so ultra-cool that his nerdiness was part of his charm?
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