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#118024 12/20/2003 5:28 PM
Joined: Jan 2001
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wwh
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Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
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A hundred pound weakling aspires fruitlessly to affections of the prettiest girl in town. She see him combing his hair while looking in a mirror, and makes fun of him.
""'Hello, Willie!' says Myra. 'What are you doing to yourself in the glass?'

"I'm trying to look fly,' says Willie.

"'Well, you never could be fly,' says Myra, with her special laugh, which was the provokingest sound I ever heard except the rattle of an empty canteen against my saddle-horn."

What does "fly" mean in this context?


#118025 12/20/2003 11:27 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sophisticated in a knowledgeable man-about-town sort of way. Usually used by those who haven't got a hope of actually being that.

Bingley


Bingley
#118026 12/21/2003 1:02 AM
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wwh
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Dear Bingley: The young man came home from the Spanish American War a brevet Colonel with a chest covered with medals. He took the trouble of going to display them to the now frowsy housewife, whose reaction was not described. Not one of O.Henry's best endings.



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