Wednesday, June 26, 2002

Last night M, G and A came over. I made the house dish.

Conversationally, we covered the full range of work/play topics (A and I used to work for the same company, I discovered, and have the same good friend, Alison, in Oz, and G's sister is bizarrely getting married to someone I know) - travelling, people we know, music, books..

We had one conversation about putting your foot in it.

Here's a true story; I'd been working abroad for two years or so, got back, and ran into J, and old friend who I'd last seen with his wife. Conversation went like this:

Me: J, how are you? Nice to see you. How's X (his wife).

J: She left me.

Me: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't know.

J: For another woman.

Me: Oh, I'm sorry -

J: Whilst I was in hospital.

Me: I'm -

J: After my business went bust.

There are some times when you just want the floor to open, right.

A conversation ensued about who the "other woman" is. If I leave you (presuming you are a bloke) for another man, you are Man A and he is Man B. Hence, "another man". But if I leave you for a woman, she is Woman A. Or, I guess I could be Woman A and she is Woman B.

M says it's some kind of social parellelism. I think this means we all have an inherent desire to do conversational feng shui and make everything match and stuff.

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