We went to a benefit tonight for Les Delices. www.lesdelices.org. This is the classical music crowd in Cleveland and people tend to dress up for these events. One fellow stood out — white tux jacket, sparkly red bow tie and a really bad toupe. I was chatting with one of my friends and this fellow comes up and starts talking about Kavanaugh, and talking and talking and talking. I’m waiting for him to take a breath and finally ask if I can comment.
I barely get two words out of my mouth and he goes back to Anita Hill and Binden and Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopecknic (sp?). When I ask him what that has to do with anything, he said Kennedy was responsible for her death. I agreed and reminded him that it was determined to be an accident. Undeterred he insisted it was equivalent and I said I didn’t remember that she had been sexually assaulted.
I also said that I resented Kavanaugh’s preppy, frat-boy sense of entitlement, noting that I was a preppy sorority sister myself. He went on and on and on with question after question — you know “what about this, what about that” etc. I asked him if I was going to get a chance to answer any of these questions or if he just intended to filibuster. He said these are rhetorical questions which require no answer and left.
Toward the end of the evening I am by the dessert tray giving my husband a chocolate truffle and George comes by and I ask him if I could serve him a truffle. He says he’s sorry for “beating me up” earlier, and I say: “Oh, George, it takes a lot more than that to beat me up.” And he says “See, I’m trying to apologize, I beat you up pretty bad.” And I said, “You didn’t beat me up, would you like a truffle?” He again tries to apologize refusing to believe he didn’t rattle me. I finally said, “George, are you going to eat this truffle or am I?” He took the truffle.
I am convinced this is the way to handle these blowhards. Ask them if they would like to engage in a real conversation as opposed to just talking points and they dissolve like meringue.
Oh, and never take on a retired inner-city middle school teacher.
