What is a “foo”? I thought? Is this like Garbage Pail Kids or Pogs or some other inexplicable youth culture thing that I just don’t get? Whatever it is, Dina did NOT like being called it, and she told her friend so this morning:

Dina: You called me a “foo” yesterday!

Friend: A what?!?!

Dina: A “foo”!

Friend: Ohh…no, I did NOT call you a “foo”. It sounds like that, but it’s not spelled the way you’re saying it.

And then suddenly, I put all the pieces together: On the bus. Dina thought he was calling her it. He said he was not “calling her it”, that you can’t “call someone that”. “Foo”, but not spelled like that…

He was noting how many seat backs had the phrase “Fuck you” on them (“FU”). Her seat was clearly one of them. He was pointing and saying, “Dina has an ‘FU’, not “Dina’s a ‘foo’”.

Oh, Holden, you’re right! You can’t erase all the “fuck you”s in the world, no matter how hard you try.