Sandy knows she’s sentimental. She knows she has weaknesses. In her first solo song, she sings that she’s “out of her head” over a fantasy. For all the talk of Sandy’s naivety, “Hopelessly Devoted to You” is a remarkably self-aware song. But it’s self-aware self-pity. There is nothing more grating to Rizzo than self-pity -- especially over a boy.

You work as a proofreader, staying up all night hunched over desks. It's dull work. You like dull work. Your co-worker sits next to you, pining. His hands do not match the rest of his body. You pity him. You remember the days you wore white lipstick and teased the boys, you and your best friend, a little slip of a thing with dark hair and a cruel mouth who always sat sideways, in a…

Despite being raised Jewish, I didn’t really know what a Reform Jew was until I got to college. I had always heard they were less religious, but the nuances were lost on me -- I thought Reform Jews were basically just slacking off, like lapsed Catholics. My family must have been Reform, I had figured, because we went to a Orthodox temple but were clearly the least religious there. After going to NYU meeting kids…