Lloyd Dobler meets the 21st Century

Random web page #1: “Bait and Switch” by Jennifer Ouellette (via “You are Not Lloyd Dobler” by Chad Orzel):

Come to think of it, rent Say Anything for your date, and chances are you’ll win major points. Most women of my era consider Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack’s character in the film) to be the archetypal Romantic Ideal; we still get teary remembering that scene where he holds up the boombox outside his true love’s bedroom window, playing Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” in order to win her back. *sniff*[1]

Random web page #2: “Women Love Gadgets, Survey Shows“, Yahoo! News UK

The research reveals that despite our supposed “best friend” relationship with diamond, most women (77 per cent) would rather have a big-screen plasma TV than a solitaire necklace. Slightly less surprisingly, a weekend away in Florida also lost out to the prospect of a new plasma TV, with 56 per cent saying they’d go for the goggle box, given the chance.

What can we conclude from this? If you want to patch things up with your girlfriend these days, you need to show up at her house with… an iPod Nano pre-loaded with Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes”?

1. Chad Orzel’s rejoinder: “Absolutely under no circumstances should you rent Say Anything, or any John Cusack movie from the 80’s, for one simple reason: You are not Lloyd Dobler. And you can’t hope to compete with Lloyd Dobler, so don’t even let it come up.”