That reminds me: my counselor (my counselor!–a man whose professional practice requires him to know about* the effects of psychoactive drugs) once told me that I didn’t need to take drugs because my imagination was already active enough…
[sub]*His boss, the psychiatrist, was the one who could prescribe them.[/sub]
In the vein of the OP, I’m about the whitest white girl you’d hope to encounter on a sunny May morning. But in high school marching band, our band director said I really “got dat soul.” We were doing a park and blow (which just means stand in place and dance while playing your instrument), and apparently I was the best at it.
It was definitely a weird compliment, but it made me feel good.
Hey, it works for me. That’s pretty much how I picture you in my fantasies.
Was that a weird compliment?
tdn, the things you say to a girl are enough to make her petals fall off.
Was that a weird compliment?
Naw, I liked it!
After presenting what he felt was a well-reasoned argument, my friend commented “I keep forgetting you’re smart!” I burst out laughing and waited for him to explain, because we’re good friends and I knew there had to be some sort of reasonable explanation for why he said that.
He explained that he thought I was attractive, and he usually thinks of women as either smart or attractive but not both (and sometimes not either), but he thought I was both.
I overheard one of my teenage pupils say to another “Glee is … all right.”
(In case you don’t know, that meant I was a truly amazing teacher!)
I’ve gotten that one too, in the UK and a few other European countries.
A French person once asked me if I was Belgian. I took that as a compliment to my French-speaking ability.
Years ago a friend interrupted the conversation, suddenly looked me in the face, and said, “You have the most amazing eyes.” I’d had a crush on her already, but that sealed my fate. Head over heels for a good year.
I had a friend - who was rather sleep deprived due to long work hours and babysitting his niece and nephew - tell me I reminded him of Dory, the ditzy blue fish from Finding Nemo. I was a little baffled until he later explained it was more the practical outlook on life and the “just keep swimming” motto and less the flaky memory thing.
She’s still one of my favorite Pixar characters, so I guess it wasn’t too bad a compliment.
A kid once told me that I looked like Weird Al. I think it’s the moustache.
“Being with you is like being alone.” From a lover who placed enormous value on his privacy and ‘alone’ time.
Most of my coworkers are male. Every once in a while I’ll hear “But not you, Queen Tonya, you’re not a girl!”
:dubious:
The sandwich maker lady at Subway told me I had very nice eyebrows.
My initial reaction was that she was trying to say something nice about every customer, since I’m fat and sort of ugly this is what she came up with for me.
But, fuck it - I’ll take it! She made my year 
I took a literature class in which I was the only English major among a bunch of theater kids. My professor wrote at the top of one of my essays, “you are, like the Duchess of Malfi, a woman out of her time.” She could have meant a lot of things, but I really liked the play so I took it as a compliment. I still think about it sometimes, when I get overwhelmed.
Don’t underestimate the value of good eyebrows. I would kill for nice eyebrows, mine are naturally lopsided and sometimes when I’m putting on makeup I make it worse and end up looking permanently suspicious. :dubious:
A stranger at the bus stop was very talkative. In the course of his chatter, he informed me that he was 48 years old (I’d have thought he was older) and then asked me “How old are you, about 67?” I did not take it as a compliment at all since I am 59. When I said I wasn’t near 67, he said that I was beautiful because I was wearing gloves that matched my scarf.
“You’re just a big lop!”
A friend’s aunt told me that when I was in college. I could tell she meant it as a compliment because I was a tall, muscular guy and she thought my easy going nature was nicer than the bullies she usually had to work with.
A random guy on the street once told my best friend – who, at the time, looked approximately like Baywatch-era Pamela Anderson, only natural and not brain-dead – “You know, you have really nice teeth.”
She did, actually.
A few of them:
“You’re not like the girl next door.” From my next door neighbor whom I grew up with as he was making a pass at me. I think it was a compliment.
I was in an another country visiting a friend and everyone was staring at me. I asked him why that was (I’m ok looking but not stunning or anything) and he said, “You don’t look like an ordinary person.” Hmmmmm…
A co-worker who worked for the same Anti-Christ boss as I said that I was like one of those inflatable clown punching bags - you keep punching them down but they keep popping back up. I think she meant I was resilient. Either that or I was too stupid to take a hint and quit already.
During an evening of intimacy, one of my exes said to me, “There’s nothing wrong with you that isn’t correctable.”