A Stunning Reversal & Putative Resolution

Skyvue: I've changed my mind. But not for a moment is it because of all the bluster and venom spewed forth here and elsewhere by Drifter, [deleted], and their ilk. It is despite their efforts, in fact, that I reached this decision. They've behaved in such unseemly fashion that I'm now rather ashamed to be of their little group. But as a seeker of truth, I had to keep searching, to retain an open mind. And I was not swayed by the "evidence" they offered (I use that term loosely), which was utterly noncompelling. No, I've come up with the evidence the hookerists have been looking for all along and none of them could come up with and it is this, and nothing else, that has convinced me that my party girls were indeed hookers.
    They didn't know the guys' names when Marge was interrogating them.
    Party gals of the type I imagined them to be would have known the names of the men before they slept with them. They would have drunk with them, joked with them...they would have learned their names. And since it was only a matter of a day or two before they spoke with Marge, they would have remembered those names. A week, two weeks, a month later...they might have forgotten them. But not a day or two later. So it is that I come, with reluctance, to the hookerist camp. But I hereby repudiate that group's tactics to date. I am a new breed of hookerist, one seeks truth wherever it is to be found and embraces his non-hookerist brethren and sistren in hopes that they too will see the truth. I am the Martin Luther of hookerists, denouncing what has come before me, forging a new path. I will not mock you, non-hookerists, for once I was like you. I will not scorn you, for you are not worthy of scorn. I will not insult you, as you have chosen the high road and must be treated with respect. I love you and would have you join me, in your own time, in your own way.

Berg Man of Alcatraz: Oh, bullshit, Brett. There are *plenty* of people out there who sleep with people the night they've met and don't remember their names the next morning, even. You, sir, are a heretic. They were not hookers. A hooker goes into a sexual encounter having received the cash *in advance*. A roadhouse girl would take money if offered, sure, but does not set the price beforehand. Being young, aimless, bored, and so going out and getting picked up and fucking a guy, and then taking the 20 bucks he offers in the morning for "bus fare" does *not* make a roadhouse girl a hooker.

The Lonesome Drifter: They were "hookers" (shorthand for "roadhouse gals who turn a trick on occasion, including the one in question," not for "women who are just friendly gals") because the script, the credits, and the lead actor all said so.

McClam: No, they weren't.

Sunnyside up Slobber: Yes, they were.

Someone named Fred in Garden City: One of 'em was a hooker.

Erin a.k.a. EB: Skyvue's post shows what our camp is made of. I am kvelling over his eloquent post, at the same time that I am reeling, but not as violently as I thought. I've been hesitant to see FARGO a second time just because of the possibility that I would stumble over some detail like this. I still maintain that Girl #1 and #2 are what you come away from the movie thinking about them. In the context of Brainerd, of that scene, my impression was that they were not pros, and I still feel that way about them. I spoke to a friend last night who had just seen FARGO for the First Time (in a theater), and I asked her--without biasing it-- what her impression was. Same as me: they weren't hookers. Lay a bunch of credits facts, etc., on her and she might change her mind. But what is most important is the perception at impact, and for me, those girls were not working, and the movie wasn't saying they were working.
But I'm happy. I feel: closure.

eileen: The film credits should have read: Roadhouse Girls, Which Is As Close to Being Hookers as You Can Get in a Small Town in Minnesota.

hacked binki with multiflavor: I've asked a few people around the office... Hookers 1; Not Hookers 2.

Erin a.k.a. EB: I'd say we've been here, we've done this. And now there are floods in the real Fargo, N.D. So, in the interests of all parties: