The Name They Skipped

I took André to see Borat after we’d been shopping in Kaufbeuren. We got into this almost empty theater—the other room had some dwarf adventure comedy with Otto signing autographs, and that’s where everyone actually was. Borat was crude and funny. The hotel bed wrestling scene got the whole theater laughing. Except for this older couple who either had the wrong movie or were expecting actual Kazakh documentary—they didn’t laugh once. I was shocked no one just walked out.

I was still getting over being sick. I’d finally gotten my World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade beta key in the mail—Blizzard had fumbled the shipping somehow—but I was planning to sell it anyway. Needed the money for school more than I needed early access. There was a party at Julian’s that night but I was too sick to go.

Then I watched the new OC episode and it was genuinely brutal. They didn’t even say Marissa’s name. Ryan threw out everything he had of her, and this new girl Taylor took her place in the opening credits like she’d always been there. No goodbye, no acknowledgment. Just gone. That’s the feeling you get when a show you actually cared about kills something, and you’re stuck watching what comes after.