.... And Then She Called It "San Fran" -- book review

There's something about "San Fran" that drives me nuts; like fingernails scratching a chalkboard, like teeth scraping against a fork I tell you. It's lazy. It's annoying. It reminds me of  yuppies and affluent baby boomers who have to abreviate all their words to sound cool and efficient, but they really don't. It also bugs me because it sounds disrespectful. I made this city my home more than 20 years ago. I don't have the bragging rights of a native San Franciscan, but I still claim this place as my home.
"Frisco" on the other hand doesn't bug me as much, if it's used in the right context. Hubby once said Frisco represents The City That Dare Not Speak It's Nickname. It conjures up images of The Gold Rush, Emperor Norton (even though he was credited with writing a decree which proposed fining people $25 for calling it by this name), being Shanghied and The Barbary Coast. There's  romance and lore behind "Frisco." "San Fran" is just lazy.

Anyways, I just finished reading Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisburger. I enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada. I figured I would enjoy reading its sequel. Honestly I found it a chore to get through. I think I liked The Devil Wears Prada because I spent a long time being an Executive Assistant. Although the people I worked for were not as evil as Miranda Priestly (in fact, some were quite nice), I understood Andy, the main character's pain. I loved that in the book (not the movie) that Andy gave Miranda the big "F - You" on the streets in Paris. I've worked for a few people who may have needed such treatment a time or two.



Revenge Wears Prada takes place about 10 years after the first book ends. Andy gets married to some rich guy, has a baby, is besties with Emily and she and Em run a magazine together. The publishing company that owns Runway magazine makes a bid for Andy and Emily's magazine. Andy doesn't want to sell. Emily does. They end up selling. Andy gets mad and quits, then divorces her husband and hooks up with her boyfriend from 10 years ago. Nobody took revenge on anybody. Miranda was hardly even in the book. All Andy did was whine throughout the whole book about how much she hated her perfect life. I was really really disappointed in the whole book. I wanted Miranda to get really evil and then have Andy and Emily outsmart her and come out on top. That didn't happen. In the end, nobody was friends anymore, Andy got divorced and the magazine was swallowed up by a publishing giant. I was about 30 pages from the end and I just wanted to quit reading it. I decided to finish it anyhow, and just in the last few pages of the book, Lauren Weisberger referred to San Francisco as "San Fran."

I hate the phrase "San Fran" so much that my review of the book went from "meh" to "F-you and your stupid book on the streets of Paris, Lauren Weisberger."