Stimulating Conversations

As the finale to a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with the kids, we went to Buca di Beppo for dinner last night. It was crowded and noisy and wonderful. And the conversation was stimulating. Want to know how to get a dining room packed with 80 or so people to stop talking all together and sit in silence? Say things like Cuirass, which is pronounced an awful lot like Queer Ass, and continue to say it over and over in an attempt to make sure that everyone knows you are not in fact saying Queer Ass, but Cuirass, which sounds exactly the same. And then be prepared to get kicked really hard under the table by your wife while the kids, mouths agape, slowly begin to giggle.

Also of note this weekend, I inadvertently increased the knowledge of my 11-year-old son while walking through Target.

‘Mom, does anyone even buy those kind of boots anymore?’
‘You mean those?’ I lean into his ear and whisper, ‘The Rubbers?’
‘Why are you whispering?’
“Well, we aren’t in London, where it is fine to call them rubbers. Here in the States if you say that loud, people are going to think you are talking about sex stuff.’
‘Why?’
– pause –
‘Um, you hadn’t heard the word rubbers before?’
‘Nope. Is it like a bad word?’
‘Uh, no. It’s another word that some people say for condoms. A slang word.’
‘So, if I was going to buy those boots I wouldn’t want to tell everyone I was wearing rubbers?’ – pause – ‘I probably should have whispered that, huh?’