September 25, 2018 – Side dish – just some pondering thoughts

         Recently I came across a phrase: “side dish”.  The first time was an article about a Mom and her teenage daughter who was beginning to date – not seriously and when asked, the daughter said, “He is only a side dish”.  Later on after college, when she brought a fella home to meet her parents, the Mom knew he wasn’t a side dish but the main dish even before the daughter mentioned it. I found the article “amusing” as I’d not heard the phrase before.

         But, today in the Dear Abby column I noticed:

         “If it’s an affair, you will be his side dish and unable to form a meaningful relationship. . . .”

         So, I checked the Urban Dictionary – seems I am checking that more often now since I guess I actually do live under a rock . . . and found that it has a profoundly “sexual” meaning – as in ‘mistress’.

         But, what surprised me more about the two different written articles for the public was the naiveté of the first writer and the down and dirty understanding of the second writer.

         So, here is my quandary as a writer.  Did the first author make a faux pas, and the second writer, as a national syndicated columnist, just have more experience.

         Did the first writer get scathing emails that she used the wrong phrase?

         Will I get scathing emails when I make such a faux pas?

         But, then again, when I searched further, I find there is an additional phrase, “sidedish boyfriend” which is basically an escort that isn’t sexual or even emotional.

         So, I am honestly back to square one. From my understanding it is a case of what sex is the friend – in order to figure out if it is a sidedish that is ‘sexually active’ or a sidedish that is just an ‘escort’.

         I am going to crawl back under my rock now.