Ask Lemmy

I was in my early 20s and was visiting a friend’s house. His wife had a friend visiting that I’d never met. We were introduced and the first words she said to me were “Do you know your features are wasted on a guy?” and then went on to provide specific details.

We were married a year later. And that was 30 years ago.

A neighbor saw me walking barefoot to my mailbox and complimented me on my healthy feet.

Hackles went up thinking he was some foot fetishist who was going to get weird on me. Nope, just a medical person of some sort that works with feet a lot and I genuinely have healthy arches and mobile toes. At least I choose to believe that explanation he gave. Otherwise, I have to assume my neighbor is jerking it every time I walk outside.

I got my leg fucked up in a hot sandy land far away. While I was doing rehab I used a cane and walked with a limp. One day I was walking out of an HEB in Houston when a dude dressed like Huggy Bear told me he liked my strut and then told me to "keep on pimpen playa."

In retrospect, it sort of makes sense as my limp with the cane looked like I was doing that stereotypical pimp walk but at the time I was very confused lol

From a French colleague:

"You are the kind of Italian we like in France."

"Wonderful, but I'm American."

"I doubt that"

I was dancing at a club a couple years ago and someone came up to me and yelled without pause “Are you a boy or a girl you’re gorgeous”

"You look like a spy" Which is sadly why my career as a spy never got off the ground.

I had to have an abdominal ultrasound done once and the tech told me I have a great pancreas, "the most beautiful she's ever seen". I didn't know what to say but it made me happy.

A PTA mom once told me that she'd commit murder for my hair.

A decade ago, I was walking a few blocks to get a burger, passed by a bar with an outdoor section.

A fairly sloshed guy stared me up and down, looked at his female friend, back at me and asked "Hey, are you trisexual?"

Being extremely awkward, significantly autistic, and apparently sufficiently twink, I responded "...sure?"

Guy got up and kissed me on the cheek.

I told him to have a nice night and went to get my burger.

...

So... yeah. That was the night I discovered what a 'twink' is, that I am apparently a twink, and explains all the times I've been catcalled by other dudes.

A shame that I am (basically) straight and only seem to date women who cheat on me or have immense mental health problems.

The Miss "my state" came to sing the national anthem for a big sports event at my job. I took care of the sound for her and we chatted a little bit. She was constantly barraged by guys coming up and wanting a picture with her, so we didn't get to have too much of a conversation. She sang the anthem, and was moving on to her next engagement and I said glad to meet you and was about to go back to the rest of my job. She stopped me and said " but we didn't get a picture together!" I told her it was ok, I understand that it's part of her job. She insisted and handed HER phone to someone walking by and insisted they take a picture of us. After they returned her phone she looked me in the eye and asked for my phone number so she could send it to me. I have a wonderful girlfriend and I would never cheat on her, but miss "my state" asked ME for my number, and I have been walking on air ever since.

You guys are getting compliments?

This guy once told me "Your hair looks small" as a compliment... I still dont't know what to make of it.

An ex from a meaningful, but fraught relationship tried to seduce me a few months after we had broken up. In the interim, I had started dating someone new, and I rejected the advances.

My ex was angry and lashing out. She said a few random insults about my new partner (implying she had manipulated me with sex), before finally saying “well, I hope she enjoys your magical penis!” (It’s not magical. The tiny wizard hat is purely for decoration.)

A friend of mine said I had a very good hugging-body. I always pictured huggable dudes as big, but I was really lean back then. She said it was because my lanky body somehow automatically fit the shape of her hugs.

I hooked up with someone at a party and they told my sister I have a big dick, loudly, in a room full of people that know me.

"Your art looks like it tastes nice"

When I was in undergrad, a new friend in my program asked if he could inspect my elbow. I said sure, and he probed my elbow with his fingers thoroughly for a couple of minutes. He then told me it was very well structured.

"I like your butt hair."

"You have suspiciously clean ears."

I'm going to preface this with two things...

First, I realize it'll sound fake. And second, I'm pretty sure she was just trying to stroke my ego, but...

One of my first girlfriends was a little odd. She was smart, well-spoken, witty and knew her way around a clever turn of phrase.

After we had finished having sex for the first time, she fake coughed into her hand, held it up to me and said

"Oh look, my ovaries..."

A random black man at the pool yelled at me that I look exactly like Emilio Estevez. I didn't know what to say

Coworker told me I look like Linus Torvalds. I really don't, not even a little (other than being a white guy with glasses). But it was oddly flattering.

"You have really hard bones". By two doctors in different hospitals. At least I took it as a compliment. They may have been complaining.

A couple years agoI (at the time mid 30s male) was coming back from a movie with my GF at about 11pm waiting for a bus in the UK. Two moderately drunk guys (looked to be about 10 years younger?) were waking down the same sidewalk, and about 2 steps after they passed us, one of them turns around and goes "Mate...", me and my GF look over and he's looking me up and down, "... NICE ass!" then fist bumps me and keeps walking.

She was like "what the fuck was that?"

I said "meh, it happens".

My dentist (who is also my friend) told me I have great saliva. Fortunately it was while I was getting my cleaning…not in random hang out conversation.

I stick with pretty neutral compliments towards others but probably in my own profession I’ve expressed over the top enthusiasm for remarkably good handwriting or very organized/complete records. I’ve gotten a couple of laughs out of clients because it’s semi-rare and it’s kinda odd to get excited about those things.

"You're almost an intellectual." Which I think will be the name of my autobiography.

"You're very handsome for an Asian man." - My girlfriend's mom

Just one of those that confirms someone's biases.

Your nose looks very well tended.

My ENT one week after my surgery.

I'm pretty sure it was intended as a compliment, but a little after I came out as trans I had a coworker tell me about a conversation she had with another coworker where she said about me, "They always dress better than us."

When we started dating my partner told me I look like Jeff Goldblum (I am a female). He then bought us a Jeff Goldblum curtain for the bathroom and a portrait we put on the wall, as well as several records, keychains and cushions with Jeff (including that Jurassic park one). It's weird as fuck but Jeff's a handsome guy and a cool fucking person so I'm not too worried about it.

"Courage means being scared but doing it anyway" seems like a pretty succinct way of putting it I think.

My wierd compliment (if it can be called that) was when I was in high school English class. My teacher noticed how competent I was and how I was the only one to consistently raise my hand when he asked a question. He gave us a research paper to do and I got an F on it, exclusively because I fucked up the citations. He said the content was good, but he had to mark me way down due to improper citing. He said "I know you can do better than this."

Is that a complement? Either way, I think about that interaction and scenario a lot even though I haven't been in high school for well over a decade.