Posted by
Ed Lilly on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 9:32:23 PM
There have been numerous stories over the past few days about an apparent "pact" made by a group of high school girls in Massachusetts. The girls were thought to have made an agreement to all get pregnant and have babies. The latest link at Refdesk.com reads as follows:
Pregnant Mass. teen says there was no pact
I am reminded of this long-running dispute between Jerry and George in "Seinfeld." At one point, George and Jerry decided they needed to grow up and make some changes in their lives. Which led to George asking Susan to marry him, and resulted in this exchange (h/t to the indispensable Seinfeldscripts.com):
George: Oh, she's got the hue. So, what's going on with you and Melanie? I mean, I know you're not getting married, but uh, things are happening?
Jerry: Well...actually, we kind of broke up.
George: You what?
Jerry: Well, you know, we were having dinner the other night, and she's got this strangest habit. She eats her peas one at a time. You've never seen anything like it. It takes her an hour to finish them. I mean, we've had dinner other times. I've seen her eat Corn Niblets. But she scooped them.
George: . . . she scooped her niblets?
Jerry: Yes. That's what was so vexing.
George: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. What about the pact?
Jerry: What?
George: What happened to the pact? We were both gonna change. We shook hands on a pact. Did you not shake my hand on it uh?
Jerry: You stuck your hand out, so I shook it. I don't know about a pact. Anyway, you should be happy you're engaged. You're getting married.
I always thought Jerry had the weaker position here. It seemed pretty clear from the interaction that George's take on what happened was more accurate. Still, it would have been nice if one of the girls at Gloucester High had had the decency to throw in a sly reference to never having shaken hands on anything.