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AskMe: How to become an eccentric (or just look like one)

Suggest eccentricities for me to adopt | Ask MetaFilter

From a fun AskMe thread:

In my quest to become more distinctive, I'm looking for suggestions of harmless eccentricities to adopt. Who better than the MeFi hive mind to provide them? Anecdotes of eccentric folk you've known in the past welcome.

This reminds me of that stage where teenage girls randomly start to affect a terrible british accent, or when college freshmen suddenly stop wearing shoes and take up raw foods and the shakuhachi. Of course, this is not to say that I haven't had ideas of my own.

’Fess up: what was your goofiest affectation and what made you stop it?

Clarification (2006-07-15 10:20:20): The "In my quest..." portion above is a quotation from the link that is referenced; it's not actually me asking for help to (God forbid) become more eccentric. This confused some people, and, well, I regret your confusion if you have any and hope this clarification helps. -- The Management

JoAnna's picture

Just like Brian I didn't...

Just like Brian I didn't think there was anyting for me... but I now remember in the earliest years of grade school,(first or second grade?) I was fascinated by spiders, so, I thought I'd be cool: I'd write my name on the top of my papers and draw an hourglass symbol like a black widow spider next to it. I was trying to get rid of my own name, and use the symbol instead. Eventually I stopped putting my name on the page, and just put the symbol on. I remember how thrilled I was that I got my papers back from the teacher without writing my name on them. so: 1) I was goth before anyone knew what goth was 2) take that prince!

I also used to cut glasses (spectacles, not drinking) out of construction paper, and everyone in the class wanted to wear them.

 
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