“what’s the matter?” dale asked as he plopped his books next to me.
“hilary’s hurting my feelings,” i said, pointing toward the offending classmate.
“why is she hurting your feelings?”
“because she doesn’t know who paul westerberg is.”
“why does that hurt your feelings? you’re not paul westerberg.”

of course at that point i was so horribly offended that i couldn’t look at either of them and had to just cross my arms and pout.

“you know the replacements?” i said toward hilary, trying again, because hope spring eternal.
“nope.” she shook her head.
“i will dare, alex chilton, i’ll be you, left of the dial.” there was more than a little pleading in my voice. i absolutely love hilary and the fact that she has not been privvy to such rock and roll greatness, break my heart a little.
“so are they like poison?” she asked.
“oh stop,” i said, putting my hands up to fend off her cutting words.
“well they seem to play here a lot,” she said.
“THE REPLACEMENTS ARE FROM HERE!”
“are they like wilco?”

finally a break.

“jeff tweedy has said that everything they do is based on the replacements!”
“yeah, i got nothing,” she said.

and lucky for her class started. guess who is getting a double-CD paul sampler this week?