Sunday, August 26, 2012

January 1995


THE INVISIBLE MAN

            A few weeks past, a wondrous event occurred while my wife and I were driving home from the store.  A man in the car next to ours was using two hands to pick his nose while simultaneously steering with his elbows. Two Hands!!!   I had never seen this sort of thing before on a suburban street.  Surely you’d think you’d have to go to a circus to see such dexterity.. And frankly, I believed I was witnessing an honest to God miracle.

            So I thought I’d share this with my wife (who believes the last miracle she witnessed was me doing the dishes and cooking in the same night).

            “Honey, look quick!! There’s a guy in the next car picking his nose with TWO HANDS and driving with his elbows!!! Isn’t that great!”

            She didn’t see it quite the same way I did, “Why do men do THAT?”
            “What?”
            “Pick their noses while driving! Do they think  no one can see them or what? It’s  gross! Why are men so gross?”

            These are the moments that I feel divided... between my love for my wife and her wonderful ideals, and being a representative of my entire gender.  It is a tough spot to be in. So I always feel it’s best to speak from the heart. Honesty is the best policy. 

            “Well, you see, the fact is that  men are not afraid of dark places... and uh... they manifest this by.... Well, men just like to work with their hands.”

            She wasn’t buying it. Yeah! So men have a tremendous capacity for grossness. They have a high gross-ability.  It really needs to be seen as an asset. Once viewed in this manner men can seem quite remarkable.  

            Women on the other hand also have the capacity to be gross. I believe they are gross more than we know.  My evidence is that I have seen women picking their noses while driving.

            Actually I’ve seen three. But for women this is “plenty.”  Based solely on those three women, and living with three sisters, and the time my mother accidentally belched so loud  at the dinner table that the air-raid sirens went off, and Mr. Bagley came running over from next door with his Civil Defense hat on, I have come up with a theory.

            Women hide it from men.  It’s like a great big club that all women belong to and one of the by-laws is that they all agree to hide gross bodily functions and the like from all men.  And they do this just to drive us nuts and make us seem more gross than we really are! But we’re on to you.  So you’d better watch yourselves. One slip-up and Wham! No mercy.

            Men do attempt to hide it too.  It’s just that we’re stupid.  We believe that when we’re in our cars we’re totally, utterly, Claude Rains without the trench coat, invisible.  It’s as if we are in a moving room with a 360°  view through one-way mirrors.  I know it seems ludicrous NOW.  But when we’re in there it seems to make perfect sense.  That should also explain the near accidents when a pretty woman goes by.

             “O’ what a work is man, how noble in stature...“  My wife doesn’t buy it either.

-dougg williams
            

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