So, gmail has a Delete Forever option?
I learned this in someone else's LJ and deemed it to be total wish fulfillment and wanted to apply it immediately to some of the words that have come out of my mouth.
Weirdly, one of the things I have regretted saying most was when, as a callow college freshman International Relations major, I corrected a member of the CIA on the correct pronunciation of Mao's wife's name because the new Pinyin spelling was a mystery to me. I'm fairly sure he forgot about it before dessert (father of a college friend, he took our little Gang of Four out to dinner while visiting said friend,) but it stuck in that memory slot that pops out to whack me over the head periodically with what a truly empty-headed know-it-all I could be. Waaay back then, of course. I hardly ever offer unsolicited verbal edits these days. O:)
Make me feel better, flist! What have you said that you'd like to Delete Forever?
Edited to add for my reference: I think that stuck with me because he wasn't just visiting his son; he was likely in town to see a specialist at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento because he already wasn't feeling good. The viciously rare and incurable cancer they discovered killed him within six to eight months. It was about two and a half years before one of my friends from that group explained that the Q in Pinyin transliteration sounded like Ch when I mispronounced Mrs. Mao's name again. At least I no longer break into an embarrassed sweat when I remember it anymore, but that took a long time, too.
Weirdly, one of the things I have regretted saying most was when, as a callow college freshman International Relations major, I corrected a member of the CIA on the correct pronunciation of Mao's wife's name because the new Pinyin spelling was a mystery to me. I'm fairly sure he forgot about it before dessert (father of a college friend, he took our little Gang of Four out to dinner while visiting said friend,) but it stuck in that memory slot that pops out to whack me over the head periodically with what a truly empty-headed know-it-all I could be. Waaay back then, of course. I hardly ever offer unsolicited verbal edits these days. O:)
Make me feel better, flist! What have you said that you'd like to Delete Forever?
Edited to add for my reference: I think that stuck with me because he wasn't just visiting his son; he was likely in town to see a specialist at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento because he already wasn't feeling good. The viciously rare and incurable cancer they discovered killed him within six to eight months. It was about two and a half years before one of my friends from that group explained that the Q in Pinyin transliteration sounded like Ch when I mispronounced Mrs. Mao's name again. At least I no longer break into an embarrassed sweat when I remember it anymore, but that took a long time, too.