What made you smile today?

Of course you are.

I know that.

You gave me a laugh anyway, JL. (A very funny thing to have come out of your mouth!)

I'm going after you, JL. Dragging you toward Massimo's..

Russian, Italian, Jewish, Indian; maybe more

When I was a kid in Arizona and when the other kids got really mad at me, thay accused me of being a Mexican or an Indian.
(Of course, that was malicious.)

I did not do well in brite sun lite.

(O, it was also intimated that I was a vampire; I guess that 's Transylvanian.)




David

That is a lot of identities for just one person, David!

In MY neighborhood, about 50 or 60 years ago,
the Italians were very nearly spitting on each other.
I found it necessary to defend my pal, Joe, next door a coupla times.





David

I had a lot of clients (and kids who got mad at me).

I hope you succeed!

A friend of mine does a lesbian burlesque show. She was making her pasties (hot pink sequins) at home, and another friend and his 8-yr-old daughter were there. She relayed the following exchange between them on FB:

8-yr-old: Daddy what are those!!??

Dad: um... Tiny hats...for gay...asians.

What made me smile today was my wife's affectionate declaration that on my tombstone she will have inscribed "HE TRIED."
What more can we ask of anyone? In my days at the university I tended to grade students up if it was obvious that they were trying.
I consider that a predictor of future success.

I'm not complaining at all!

That happened to me too with my Mexican students -- they thought I just might be Mexican. One student was very proud of her Spanish heritage (as opposed to native American) and was convinced that I was also a Spanish Mexican, like her. She said I looked exactly like an aunt of hers.

Olive-toned skin, dark wavy hair, not-tiny nose and brown eyes have gotten me mistaken for a bazillion different nationalities, I think that's an archetype that can go many ways.

When I arrived in Arizona, at age 8,
I was very abruptly scorched, inflicting an olive tone
from which I have never completely recovered.





David

When my 2 boys were little I worked for two doctors where we lived in Rhode Island. I answered the phone all day long, "Dr. Farrelly and Dr. Pope's office." One day, in their play with a toy phone, I heard my youngest say as he picked up his phone, "Dr. "Fairy and Dr. Poke's office."

That is making me shake with laughter even now. I told Dr. Farrelly the story, and he didn't think it was funny AT ALL. For a while after that, I had a time trying not to say Dr. Fairy and Dr. Poke.

Right after high school a friend of mine worked for Drawn's Business College in Dallas. Answering the phone, she was to say, "Drawn's Business College, are you interested in part time, or full time. Once, it came out "Are you interested in fart time, or pull time?" She could never say it right after that, nor keep from laughing.

Laughter is the best medicine

Joe from Chi-town quoting Robert

<still chortling>

A NYT story and accompanying comment(s):

After the gold medal victory by the Canadian Men's hockey team, I got an
voice mail from a friend in Montreal. He had apparently been celebrating
for a while before leaving the message. I swear I could smell the beer through
the phone.

My younger brother, his wife, and their kid came to Cville on their way back from Germany to their new posting in San Antonio with the Air Force. 3 or 4 days here during which we had a bunch of breakfasts, lunches and dinners together. Too many for me. I can't eat restaurant food to the extent that they do.
Anyway, Jim is notoriously cheap.
Jim would pick up the tab at the cheap breakfast place and the tab for lunch (under tipping which I would make up for privately) and then it would be my turn at the nice dinner place.
Dick, my older brother from the west coast, would often come east with his wife to join us.
He and I laughed about Jim's scamming and Dick played the game as if it were chess, grabbing a small check to set Jim up to, after another meal or so, stick him with the big dinner check .
It wasn't about the money for us. We could all afford it. It was just an attempt on Dick and my part to mess with him.

There are ranches out in the Australian boonies rj where a man can disappear.

We have a DEAR (and notoriously tight) friend in Chicago whom we visited a few years ago. He invited us to go out have a meal of great Chicago beef ON HIM.
He took us to an Arby's restaurant and used coupons. It's part of his charm.

Do you know Arby's, Spendi? They sell what is alleged to be roast beef sandwiches for $1 each.
The meat is in slices perhaps 1/32nd of an inch thick. Anything more than that would be impossible to chew through.