I think you have found your master.

She's lucky that you're such a comprehensive person. In most cases the gifter would be furious.

Politesse

Don't most people just toss them in a drawer and not wear gifts they don't like? It's inefficient but gift-giving isn't always about the giftee getting usage out of something (white elephant, Thorstein Veblen, etc.). For my part I prefer usefulness; I know someone very special who is getting a new oven mitt for Sinterklass.
Politness is niceness but candor is grander.

I always feel embarrassed on giving or receiving gifts. I prefer simply to pay.

Bernard

I love paying as well, but some people don't like money, at least not as a gift. Isn't it awful?

Arnon

Are you really surprised with a reaction like this after the conversation last week with Vilde and your choice for a slutty bra?

Mieke

Vilde has nothing to do with my companion's reaction to the necklace. My companion does not read the comments on this site, she has better things to do. And the adjective she used for the necklace was -- to be precise -- "vulgar." Not "slutty".
But in my experience "vulgar" sometimes means "slutty."
I'm not at all surprised. My companionhas the habit of returning gifts after complaining about them. That's why I like her so much.
My mother used to say: "If you give me a gift I will throw it out right away."

Wrong gifts tell more than right gifts.

@ Arnon
It seems your mother and the late mine have similar reactions; she used to throw or give away all my presents, right or wrong.
By the way, your last column in Humo about Belgian Police Porn Stars is an outstanding example of dry humor.

@Vilde

Please if you're still out there - give us a small sign or I may start wondering what Arnon has done to you. Maybe he's started taking measures to transform you into his mother, in which case you'll have to go for green after all.

Suspicious

The first time I have with my parents then I wanted was invited to make a good impression. It is said that I make delicious apple pie. Because my friend's father sweet things like lust, I thought to homemade apple pie.
When I arrived, and the cake over the father looked me straight in the eye and said: "I'm always suspicious or home-made apple pie"

Monica

What did you have for dinner last night?

Oscar

What did Monica drink last night.

Noa

Please leave Vilde alone.

@Arnon, I can completely imagine you saying "please leave me (or my mother) alone" but as for Vilde, I have always been a applauding Vilde here so I'm the last person you need to say that to. I simply would like to see her back. So please explain why you feel you need to protect her against specifically me?

(trying someone else I've been missing lately, not only Vilde) - @Pablo del Pueblo, where are you?

Arnon

If Monica drank something, it was probably more recent than last night.

Arnon

I believe that sober commenting is a virtue.

Monica's post looked quite drunk, yes.

@Oscar - I believe that presenting yourself for who you are is a virtue.

Noa

Arnon is quite protective when it comes to Vilde.

@Mieke, yes, apparanty so. I find this a little questionable though considering the confidence and power Vilde had portrayed.

Noa

Presenting yourself as an improved version of yourself is called civilization.

@Arnon, yes agreed. But to present oneself as a lesser version of a flamboyant, eloquent author who liked to use words (elaborately and emotionally so) can be called ironic. Or: misrepresentation. Or even: thievery.

Monica

Is this your way of letting us know your not Vilde? It makes you only more suspicious.

your= you are

Noa

Are you trying to suggest that posting comments on this site under the name of “Oscar Wilde” is an act of plagiarism?
Did you forget to take your sleeping pills last night?
By the way: all authors like to use words, actually all authors happen to work with words, and yes use words. I blame the “eloquent author who liked to use words (elaborately and emotionally so)” on a lack of sleeping pills.

Arnon

I am not convinced,yet. M. reads this blog from time to time. But she sure knows how to handle you.

@Arnon, you're right, I forgot to take my (sleeping) pills. What I meant to say is - your cherished blogpee Oscar Wilde celebrated the virtue of sober commenting. I found this to be ironic in light of the legacy of the real Oscar Wilde whose name blogpee Oscar Wilde is borrowing. For more reasons than one. Perhaps I'm insane but all this cerebrality and cleverness aimed solely at impressing exhasparates me. I wish you could make the more irrational and emotional blogpees your favourites for a while. If only as an experiment. Personally, I'd love to know what it's like to be defended by you as opposed to attacked. It must lead to a feeling of superiority (does it Oscar? does it Vilde?) But I suppose there's hope still: Mieke.

Noa

My interpretion? I still wonder why he suddenly called me 'Beloved'. He never gave any criticism either, wich asthonished me even more.Most often Arnon just ignored me. But you, Noa, he never ignored. He gave you some harsh times though, but my guess? That's what he does with the people he likes: He puts them to the test.

interpretation??

Mieke

I don't ignore you, I think of you a lot.

Mieke

My companion has better things to do than reading comments on this site. Believe me, some people have better things to do.

I too have better things to do, but I choose not to.

Dens

You are not my companion. But who knows what happens in the future, I have a weakness for red hair.

Lingering around this is the best thing I have to do and have done these past -what has it been Arnon? 3 years? - In fact it's now helping me in unexpected and surprising ways.

Lingering around this blog, I meant.

@Mieke, I like your interpretation of course. It leads to a warm fuzzy feeling because it has me thinking Arnon loves me as much as I love him. But I've learned never to trust warm fuzzy feelings.

@Noa
I think you can trust the feeling, but not always the source.

Arnon

I am aware of that, I think a lot of you too.
With love.

Now I am getting jealous.

Vilde

A year ago Mieke sat on top of me. If you want I can show you the pictures. But no reason to be jealous. Come on, Vilde, with your lifestyle...

Arnon

I still remember your legs around my neck.

@Vilde, Arnon had said you would one day return and he was right. My fantasy had you returning as a poet, writing only in rhyme. Or as a, say, intellectual. But it seems you've returned broken spirited. Is this what your private communication with Arnon has done to you? Or is this what that nastier people in our midst have done to you? If so, do you feel we should strike back at them. I'll help you if you like. I hate to see a potential female intellectual go to waste.

Arnon

I prefere your physical presence from time to time.

Noa

Vilde has still a whole universum - the world of Arnon Grunberg - ahead of her to discover. Give her some time.

@Mieke, yes. As we're such die-hards in this his Garden of Eden, I know he's going to wake-up in an hour or so over there and I suspect he'll get angry at me for addressing Vilde again. Time for me to go offline for a few hours. I'll return when I've had enough beer to handle myself.

Noa

Exactly.
Vilde is alive and kicking. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about me after last night.
His parents (although liberal minded) are upset and angry. Unfortunately they discovered Vilde's alias and his comments on this site. It is no joke to wake up and find an e-mail in your inbox that starts with "Dear Mr. Predator."
Never ever mention Vilde's name again on this site. Thanks.

@Arnon - I see. Poor you, that must have been very traumatic. So let me see if I'm getting this straight: you're asking me to stop using you-know-who's name, is this for your sanity and safety or for you-know-who's? And does this request extend to all commentators here or only to me? And what are we to do when you-know-who chooses to comment here him/herself? Ignore entirely? Last but not least, I'm sensing there's something I need to tell you concerning a person who's real name starts with a letter I shall email Johannes.

Noa

I ask you to refrain from comments on Vilde out of judicial concerns. Take it from me you have never met sailor Vilde and and it's doubtful if you will ever meet him.

@Arnon - judicial concrens and sailor, that's quite a mind fuck and a slightly unssatisfying one. So I hope at least he'll sail my way some day.

Noa, Mieke, et al

Coming from anyone else I might consider such statements to be slander, but considering the source I will simply point out that Arnon has a very active imagination. Trust me, I am everything you believe me to be and more.
Does anyone know how to get in touch with Margot Morgan? I am worried about her.

Vilde

Could you ask your mother to stop calling me? Could you ask your father to stop sending me e-mails? Could you ask your sister to stop threatening me? I was not, I am not, and I will not be aware of your age. I never made any indecent proposals. I merely suggested that you needed a bath.
It was you who asked me while drinking green tea [sic]: “Do you happen to have a whip in your apartment?”
I hope one day we can discuss this in peace with your family and your friends.
Please tell your sister that I looked her up on facebook and she has everything what I am looking for in a woman. The little fling with her younger brother was nothing more than a literary adventure.
You left your socks in my apartment. I will send them to your parents.

@Arnon (and Vilde) - Are you ridiculing me? That's not very nice is it.

Vilde

Written statements have nothing to do with slander.

Vilde

This is what it means if you get involved with Arnon. You take a wild ride on your imagination.