Oh great Maximum Leader, let the peasants squabble a bit. You admire our first president even though his Secretaries of State and Treasury were at each other‚ÄövÑv¥s throats. More to the point, the Air Marshall‚ÄövÑv¥s reply to my straight line was FUNNY. A little inside joke for the MP fans out there.
Speaking of MP fans, I have noticed that I usually get on quite well with them. They are generally well educated and have a skewed sense of humor. Of course, my sample may be small. I remember some uber-geeks in high school who were big MP fans ‚ÄövÑv¨ I didn‚ÄövÑv¥t associate with them at all. I suspect many of them are maladjusted adults, but I don‚ÄövÑv¥t meet those folks often. The folks I do meet and appreciate are the MP fans who have an intellectual bent and, regardless of their group membership in high school, have either maintained or acquired people skills. Women who like MP are much rarer then the men, but those women who appreciate the British troupe are rare gems. The ML and FM well remember the fun lass who was responsible for the creation (or revelation?) of the ML‚ÄövÑv¥s ‚ÄövÑv Iron Duke‚ÄövÑvp and the FM‚ÄövÑv¥s ‚ÄövÑv Curious Hugh‚ÄövÑvp monikers.
A few weekends ago I took my daughter on a playdate at the Charlottesville Children‚ÄövÑv¥s Discovery Museum. We met one of her little friends and his father. I had met the other father before at a couple of the Mommy group activities, but was a bit stressed out about the prospect of a prolonged period in which I would have to make extended conversation with someone about whom I knew very little. (I am quite envious of the ML‚ÄövÑv¥s ability to easily make conversation with anyone. One of the first things that attracted me to my wife was her ability to gracefully carry a conversation with even the most reticent individual ‚ÄövÑv¨ a remnant of sorority rushes past.)
On the drive over we covered the basic men-getting-to-know-each-other stuff: jobs, hometowns, sports, home-improvement, military service. But I didn‚ÄövÑv¥t feel fully comfortable till we got to the museum. As we entered, instrumental, peppy music was playing in the background. Inured to the constant soundtrack of parenthood, I didn‚ÄövÑv¥t pay much attention, but my companion turned to me, smiling, and noted ‚ÄövÑv The Monty Python theme.‚ÄövÑvp At that point, I knew he was cool.
