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Stupid In Action

Readers often complain about TSTL (too stupid to live) heroines in romance novels. Me, well, I think I have a higher tolerance than most for TSTL characters. In my experience, humans have a never-ending supply of stupidity. It is a scary but very real phenomenon. I often see or hear about people doing some lame thing and have a “you’ve got to be kidding” reaction.

To prove my point I would direct your attention to a Michigan woman, Ann Marie Linscott. This genius tried to hire a hitman using Craigslist. Yep. She went on to the biggest internet bulletin board looking for someone to do a little freelance work - ie, commit a murder - and offered $5,000 to do it. She wanted this freelance person to kill the wife of the married man with whom she was having an affair.

There are so many stupid things going on here that I don’t even know where to start.

Now, is she the dumbest human on the planet? No. Unfortunately there are many people out there who would make this woman look brilliant. See, those TSTL characters may be realistic after all.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 6:55 am and is filed under About Nothing In Particular, About Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “Stupid In Action”

  1. Susan Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 10:20 am

    Just when you think you have heard the most stupid thing a person can do another fool comes along!

  2. Fedora Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 10:46 am

    Wow… that is very sad on so many levels, HelenKay!

  3. Liza Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 11:18 am

    I saw the headline on-line, but never read the story. You really have to almost feel sorry for her level of foolishness.

  4. azteclady Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 12:16 pm

    Yes, well… but I don’t read books for realism, I read to escape this kind of everyday idiocy all around me. That said, these kind of ‘news’ depress me no end.

  5. Cryna Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    That is scary that these people are for real and walking among us. It never ceases to amaze me that they give no thought to what they are doing or the consequences. All they see is the end result of what they want to happen.

  6. JSL Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    That’s sad, scary… and funny. Sorry - but, wow. I’ve been thinking about this -in fact, I recently blogged about it :-P it just struck me as funny you posted this.

  7. catslady Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    Truth is stranger than fiction :)

  8. Pat L. Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    I heard about this yesterday, I believe. Yes, some people are truly tstl.

  9. Stacy ~ Says:
    January 30th, 2008 at 4:10 am

    Yeah I saw this. It takes all kinds, doesn’t it?

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