now I have "the pencil rain" in my head

[jinian]

marzipan_pig, I just remembered why I thought there was no way this book was written by a woman. But now I wonder if it's a local thing somehow.

[Poll #1039192]

Comments

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Preliminary results indicate that Shepard was indeed on crack.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Or maybe I have somehow misinterpreted what the character was thinking, hmm. Wonder if the book is back on the shelf at the library yet.

(I now always feel that the author themself is going to show up when I say anything about their work. Interwebs, sheesh.)

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

No, he had her do it to rate her attractiveness. I thought it was weird too. I had heard that more for your butt, that if your butt falls you're old and a dog, except mine kind of filled out more when it fell some.

Any scene where he had her interact with her body was just off; that's what it used to be like when most of the books I read were about men, like, the descriptions of adult women were so weird that I thought something was wrong with ME for not feeling/acting the way the characters in books did, it was a huge relief to realize no, it was that the people were written bizarrely.

[kiya]

I shall sort of answer the poll in comment --

This is something I've heard of, like, once, when I was maybe in my early twenties, and would never be able to bring to mind without there being a clickybutton to suggest an answer, so it'd be, "Uh, something weird? Maybe? I think I heard of this once?"

It's one of those things that goes in the bin filed, "Mainstream culturestuff is so weird."

My parents are a male geek and a female nutcase.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

It's definitely weird. Thanks for the data.

[kiya]

And I missed the 'where' question entirely: Maryland, near DC, with a fair amount of cultural influence from Boston-area New England, mostly blue collar.

It's the sort of madness my mother might have perpetrated -- as in, it sounds in-character -- but I don't believe it was actually part of her cultural matrix.

[lirrin.livejournal.com]

I don't even remember the first time I heard that. Long, long ago. My mother is not well-endowed, and I am, so that might have something to do with it. Or maybe it was during the Poise Classes I took (yes, really, I did. I know my colors - I'm an autumn - and how to walk down stairs properly, and how to set a table for a full 7 course meal. Now stop laughing. *hehe*)

Since I hit about 20, I've referred to it as the Laptop Test. If I can hold up a laptop with unrestrained boobage, maybe I should consider a bra. *snicker* But even as a teen I thought the concept of the Pencil Test was stupid. Are ya more comfortable with one on or off? There's your test.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

A laptop? Dude. I might be able to hold up my new laptop, but not one from when I was 20!

I was pretty impressionable when I was 10 and started "needing" to wear a bra, so the pressure from female peers of all stripes was more effective than it would've been later. If I'd hated it, I probably would've made more trouble, but it was a Thing You Get To Do When You're Old Enough that I didn't really mind, so I was in.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

ha. i can't do laptops, but if i do wear a bra (even a decent exposures sportsbra type thing, those being all i currently wear) and slouch, then i don't need a table to set my plate on at dinner.

if i'm wearing a corset i don't need to slouch.

where's that damn boobie goodwill, anyway?

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

I first heard of this:

I absolutely don't remember. Might've been as a teenager, might've been much, much later. Was quite probably not as a young child or pre-teen.

[hattifattener]

I'm guessing from context here that Shepard's character was using the "pencil retainment -> old and saggy" interpretation? I've heard that meaning of the pencil test, but not as often as the "you need a bra now, like a Real Grownup Woman" adolescent liminal interpretation.

Another interpretation I've heard is that if you retain a pencil then your breasts are unattractively large; this presumably from the '20s or some other era in which large breasts were unfashionable.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

My mom never taught me anything that had anything to do with girls. No makeup, no diets, no clothing, no hairstyles, no NOTHING. Which is kind of bizarre, considering she was the oldest of five girls.

I think she might have mortified me once by sending flowers when I got my first period. Oh, god, yes. WHAT was she THINKING?! And OK, maybe she took me bra shopping once or twice.

I doubt she knows anything about breasts, though.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

I take that back about hairstyles. She gave me a spit curl once. A SPIT CURL! Well, she licked her finger and flattened out a piece of my hair, I think she may have been having me on.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

jinian had to teach me all the breast stuff coz mine weren't really done yet when I left home. I've told my mom this; I guess I was just kind of unmanaged b/w going on the pill at 18 and meeting K. 10 years later?

[firecat]

I think I read it in an Ann Landers column back in the 70s