CL
I feel like it may turn out be Acronym Week as I thought that in today's post it would be fun to discuss (and perhaps introduce to some of you) a term my friends and I used to quote many moons ago . . . and that we'll still sometimes bring to the table on special occasions: CL.
CL stands for caught looking and as you may have quickly surmised, it refers to the act of being caught looking at a member of the opposite sex. At this page, you'll find the greatest collection of CL shots I've ever seen and after scrolling through it, I gave up trying to pick one to place at the header of this post . . . they're all just too amazing for words.
I can't take credit for CL and I'm not sure who is the originator but I remember my buddy Mark introducing me to it back in middle school . . . or maybe it was elementary school . . . although I'm pretty sure none of us were scoping girls in elementary school and given I was regularly sporting a NKOTB T-shirt like this one at that age, you can bet that girls were not what I was regularly getting caught looking at . . .
In what may be the greatest capture of CL in modern film, we see both the excitement of a daring look and the distress that can occur if one gets caught. Granted, this particular example shows a pretty bold move on the part of Michael Cera as not only does he have the girl behind him, but he's also holding his look for a good couple of seconds; this is quite daring and I'm not sure I would have tried this back when I was in high school . . . but that's probably b/c I was always too focused on the blackboard (nerd alert!)
One thing I will say about CL is that it's definitely something you can grow out of and in particular, something you can develop strategies against. Alcohol often helps with the shame of being caught looking because let's face it: if you're out at a bar, single, and drunk, isn't the whole point to lock up as many CL moments as possible?! Also, I think that as you gain experience interacting and flirting with members of the opposite sex, you develop a little more tact when it comes to stealing glances and looks at one (or some feature of one) who interests you . . . I say this because giving a quick glance at a girl on the treadmill next to me (without getting caught) is infinitely more manageable than it was back in college . . . then again I now run marathons for fun so perhaps this ability is in some way tied to my running skills.
Rather than go into detail about my all-time greatest moments in CL history (or dive into further analysis on the trials and tribulations associated with the CL experience), I thought it would be more fun to hear from you about the times and situations in which you've been caught looking; I'd love to hear about your funniest or most embarrassing CL moment so I hope you'll share them here!
4 comments:
I've never been caught.
This is a really interesting question. The fact that there is actually a term for doing something that is completely natural (and in fact vital since looking is, generally speaking, a first step towards procreation) says something about our North American/Anglo-Saxon culture, because generally the term and, more importantly, the act has negative connotations. It's understandable to some degree (although girls love "catching" the "looker" in the act and turn the tables a lot more than they let on) because some times/(most of the time?) when a woman walks down the street she would prefer to avoid the "paparazzi". (For example, I was in Morocco recently, where they clearly didn't get the memo about CL, and stare at foreign females like they're kebabs, to the extent that even if you're not being "evaluated" you feel uncomfortable.) But is the reverse, i.e. billions of men pretending that what really captivates them is the chubby mail man or the contours of the asphalt and not the leggy blonde, any more optimal? Of course the "understanding" that has evolved is a kind of middle ground, a sort of "don't ask, don't tell", and we know how well that's turned out.
I feel like CL should be if your girlfriend/wife catches you looking. Or is there a different term for that? If not, there should be. I suggest Eye Cheating.
I like that fine tuning.
Is it eye cheating when M. catches you looking at Elizabeth Berg's picture?
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