Best Friends - Dr. Edwards and Dr. McLain

Riverdale Review: How did you meet?

Dr. Jeffery Edwards: How did the two of us meet? Here. Dr. McLain was at my… Dr. McLain got here 2 years before I was. I was 2011. You’re 2009. Dr. McLain was in my interview lunch, the interview lunch, it was my day of interviews. I went into that in one of the foreign language rooms, I think maybe Ms. Choi’s room. Anyway, Dr. McLain was very, very nice to me.

Dr. Carin McLain: I don’t remember this day at all. But I’m glad--

JE: I think that I would remember because I was under pressure

CM: Yeah. I’m glad I was nice.

JE: Because that’s a very high, very tense process.

CM: You weren’t able to see the darkness lurking under my smile?

JE: Well, I was talking about how isolating college life is, and you said, “Yeah, no kidding.”

CM: Oh, yeah yeah yeah. Oh, I do kinda remember that.

JE: And I thought that was nice. You were kind of on my side.

RR: What’s your favorite thing about the other person?

JE: I love Dr. McLain’s dark humor. And she’s extremely compassionate.

CM: I have a word for one thing I love about Jeffrey. Can I share that word?

JE: Sure, I don’t know if-

CM: You might have to redact it, but he has what I call b**** wit, which is exactly what it sounds like.

JE: Quick and sarcastic. Yeah Carin calls it “b**** wit” and I call it “speaking the truth.”

CM: Quick and sarcastic. Jeffrey is a great conversationalist; he likes to talk on the phone like old school.

JE: For a long time.

CM: And he’s a very good source of gossip, community gossip. I’m more of a peripheral figure but he keeps me feeling plugged in.

JE: It’s because everyone tells me stuff!

RR: What’s a pet peeve that your partner/friend does?

JE: I can think of a couple that you can have about me, but hold on, let me think.

CM: Sometimes you wear a little too much perfume. But I’m sensitive.

JE: No, no, I know. She calls me a walking air freshener.

CM: You know like when you walk into 9/10 and just walking in the door you can already smell his perfume? Then you know it’s gonna be a happy day.

JE: And I don’t think I have any particular pet peeves.

CM: Sometimes you get mad at me for being too nice.

JE: Sometimes you’re too forgiving.

CM: Yeah, I don’t hold grudges as effectively as Dr. Edwards.

RR: I feel like it’s a good thing to not hold grudges.

JE: It is a good thing, it’s healthier.

CM: Sometimes you get mad at me like you think I’m not standing up for myself enough.

JE: That’s it, let’s say that. I think she needs to stand up for herself more. And, yeah, really, vocally stand up for herself.

CM: My seniors are gonna be like, what? Because they think I’m [?].

RR: Would you still like the other person if they were a worm?

JE: If they were a worm?

RR: Yes.

JE: A worm?? I don’t even understand what that means!

RR: Like if Dr. McLain was a worm, would you still like her?

JE: But worms don’t have personalities!

CM: If there are, you know, sarcastic worms out there, then yes.

JE: And you can say I said, that question doesn’t make sense.

RR: What’s the best part of your relationship/friendship?

CM: Laughing, laughing, laughing.

JE: We keep each other going.

CM: A lot of laughing.

JE: You know, school is not an easy environment. And you need comic relief. And playfulness. And we’re good playmates.

CM: Yeah. And people with whom you don’t even need to say what you’re thinking and they’ll already know. That’s good.

RR: Who's most likely to cry reading a book or watching a movie?

JE: I don’t cry. It’s not any kind of masculine thing or anything, it’s just I don’t have those kinds of feelings.

CM: And I can cry at, like, commercials. I cried at a fake tiktok the other day, I didn’t know it was fake. So I cried the first time and I cried again when I found out it was fake. It was about dogs. But yeah I cry at anything, everything, all the time.

JE: And I never cry.

RR: You guys are very different in that sense.

JE: Yeah. Yeah! Super different.

CM: Oh, also, important thing that we do for each other is reality checks, sanity checks.

JE: That’s right.

CM: So like “today I did this in class, am I going to get fired?”

JE :”Am I going to get in trouble?”

RR: What’s your favorite thing to do together?

JE: What’s our favorite thing to do? You know, talk on the telephone. Laugh in the faculty room. But we all participate in that.

CM: JVB.

JE: Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s right. We go to the public theater frequently to see this cabaret performer named Justin Vivian Bond. That’s a lot of fun, that’s special.

CM: That’s on special occasions.

JE: That’s on special occasions.

RR: That’s cool.

JE: It is. She’s a New York-famous trans cabaret performer.

CM: With very serious b**** wit. She’s hilarious.

JE: She speaks truth.