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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

SMALL TALK

Yesterday, at a gathering, there were several young men standing together, and I asked a young woman, "Is the young man across the lawn with the hirsute adornment your guy?" She smiled and said yes. I told her that I liked a nice beard. When he sat down, she told him what I'd said, and although she obviously knew the word "hirsute", he did not, but we had an enjoyable conversation discussing the word and also "hirsuitism". I also noticed her bare, unshaven legs and the hair on her legs was curly. I thought to myself, "That's something one doesn't see very often, especially since her hair on her head is straight." NO, I did not broach THAT subject, although I haven't seen unshaven legs since the Woodstock era, except on women of fundamentalist faiths.

I noticed that he was wearing cuff links and I said how difficult it had been finding a shirt with French cuffs for my husband. He asked, "Really?" (they live in a cosmopolitan area) I said, "Remember, we're in Washington Court House; I had to go to Columbus to find one."

She told him, "Sue is the one who asked me about pernambuco wood." He nodded, knowingly, about THAT word!

A friend who was listening to the exchange, commented, "I'm not good at small talk--how do you do it?" I said, "You don't think the topics of hirsute adornment, French cuffs, and pernambuco are BIG talk?"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Even I know pernambuco--NOW! ML