The weirdest compliment – You look like you could make a mean tortilla.
There was a homeless bummie dude, Omar, who used to stay right near my old work.
Nice dude, former military, grew up poor and black in the south, crazy intelligent, aggressively & shoutingly friendly (e.g. “HEY! HEY! HEY! I LIKE YOUR ALOHA SHIRT! YOU LOOK GREAT!”), chronically drunk.
First thing: “No one ever messes with you. You look like you’re going places.”
Second thing, separate day: “You’re pretty alright. The neighborhood bon vivant.”
Thank you for taking charge, it was cool and what we needed.
As someone who constantly have to put up with men belittling me for my leadership skills and refusing to do what I say because I’m a girl, hearing this just once was enough fuel for a full year of shittiness.
Not a simple worded compliment. A professor who clearly loved his subject asked if I would be his TA because I clearly loved it too and was doing so well in the class. My notes on that class were fabulous because of my interest. I took class notes, intensive book notes, then a reread summarization note session, then a study guide note-taking session. It paid off. Being recognized was just really damned nice.
In person, we were all talking about dentists and some guy said something to me about dental work and my coworker was all, “are you kidding me? Look at her teeth, they’re freaking perfect” in this exasperated/disgusted tone of voice that made me laugh. I went through retainers, four teeth moved (small mouth, alt to surgery), expander, braces, retainer, wisdom teeth removal, and finally cosmetic repairs from the braces. I have nightmares monthly where my teeth crumble in my mouth. So I really liked that compliment.
I was 13 and a grown man stopped me on the street to tell me I had sexy legs. And that was the first day of a lifetime of street sexual harassment.