Actress Katharyn Bond, 33, of the upper West Side, who was wearing a little black dress with heels and a pink shawl, was taking the subway to a theater to see a play. "Pretty women," she said, "take the subway so we can go spend money on more important things - like alcohol."

Now she sounds like fun girl. However, my guess is I couldn't afford to keep her happy for very long.

She does sound like fun. Here's her email address. Ain't google great.

k_vagabond@hotmail.com

And her picture and bio

http://www.velocitytheatre.com/KATHARYNimage.jpg

That quote must be bogus. Since when do pretty girls have to buy their own drinks?

I think its funny they are getting offended. Who CARES? Really.

Sean, you might be onto something. Spose 'Kate' is really a dude?

Pylorn-

They got offended because 99.999% of women are insecure.

Have you ever noticed it's perfectly fine for a girl to bemoan that she isn't pretty (also called "fishing for compliments") but if it's said by someone else, it immediately becomes an offense?

The fact that any women at all care what the sign said - tells you that there's some tiny part of them that's worried about the sign's implications. If the sign had said "ALL NEW YORK MEN ARE FAT, OBNOXIOUS, AND STUPID" I would be surprised if even one guy took it to heart and became seriously offended (unless John Kerry was in line that day).

If the sign had said "ALL NEW YORK MEN ARE FAT, OBNOXIOUS, AND STUPID"

Geez, I'd probably agree with the sign. Having been conditioned by this enlightened, post-modern era and all.

Oh wait, we're talking about New York? Heck, in that case it is true.

Okay, I'm just goofin' on the blue states is all. Don't start sending me hate mail.

Anne, if you think John Kerry would ever stoop to the level of taking the subway, you're nuts.

:-)

Damn, when I commandeered the Transit Authority Computer System and wrote that message, I had no idea it would cut off the last few words of my message. It was supposed to say "Pretty girls don't ride the subway if they can ride a cowboy instead!" Yee How!

And here I thought the sign had to do with some sexual slang I didn't know about...

Post-9/11 paranoiac interpretation:

It wasn't a declarative statement, but a warning....

Well, I'll go serious here because someone was going to, sooner or later:

The hacking hacked sign is an attempt to terrorize women. Now, wait a second, stay with me, not going liberal on anyone here, just want to make a point:

it's an interesting and recurring theme, message, troll crud if you will, to taunt and harass females with this statement: "you aren't pretty."

Interesting here, is that a very aggressive troll I had on my blog a while ago wrote that same thing, among other points made ("(my) wrists must be like grapefruits..." and, "you're not even pretty", among other statements from troll's pit.

I wondered, "who asked?" because, it isn't like I'm writing to flaunt, solicit, whatever. And so the "you're not even pretty" thing struck me as a giveaway about the troll's personality upset most of all, and that I could get what he was going for but didn't have the interest to help him along any by picking that up.

Certain insecure males use that line (it's a recurring issue, usually stops around the age of ten or so, but unfortunately some never grow beyond that, or repair their way to elsewhere) to create fear and insecurity among females who, some of which, need to feel they're at least visually appealing to males. But, when it's flung about like that, in that sorta "eat this!" method (trolling in blogs/internet sites, hacking subway message boards), not too difficult to see that it's there to create insecurity.

Women aren't so much vain as they have to cope with a lot of this sort of negation, not only from some males but also from other women. So, when it's also appearing by hack or by troll, there's an added level of threat implied and it can be upsetting, even subtley, but still upsetting and threatening because it's something from an unknown source, like a scary figure in a dark alley.

I consider it a form of stalking, certainly harassment. As are people who continue to make contact with someone after being told to leave them alone, to not make contact. So they taunt, stalk, and eventually, if it persists, can terrorize if not worse.

It's an indication, certainly, that someone's got problems. And isn't respecting boundaries, both psychological and legal/property/access boundaries, of others.