Random Behavior

I did not rid myself of "random behavior" last night.  I went to dinner with a group of professionals including a colleague from the factory.  First I drank too much.  Then I talked too much.  Then I drank some more.  It was cold.  Surely that brought it on.  I ordered duck and was talking so much I didn't notice that I had been brought a pork chop instead.  Halfway through dinner, I said, "Is this duck?"  Someone called the waitress over.

"Is that duck?"

"No," she said, "that's a pork chop.  He has the duck."

We looked to the fellow sitting across the table from me.  He was on expense account and was paying for the evening.

"I thought that was an awfully tender pork chop," he said.

"Bullshit," I told him, wanting what was left on his plate which wasn't much.  He had devoured the thing.

"Oops," said the waitress.  "Would you like something else to drink?"

"Probably."

When you think you are being most witty, you probably are not.  I am sure there will be repercussions for what was said at the table last night.  Maybe no one will remember, but I don't think they were drinking enough to forget.  Perhaps they, too, though, will think me clever.

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy has rocked the Egyptian boat by posting a nude photograph of herself on her blog.  Both "liberal" and "conservative" Egyptians were shocked by it.  A few see her as a brave human rights activist.  Most see her as something else, some she-devil who has gone too far.  Liberty has its limits after all.  "Freedom," said one detractor, "is not the same as degradation and prostitution."

Yes, we can agree about that.

But there goes the country.  If women begin taking off their clothing, what next?  It used to be so good there, too, everyone behaving so well and all.  Some things had to be done that were not "tasteful," sure, but they had to be done nonetheless to insure social stability.  Someone has to enforce the rules.

If things like this keep happening, I'm certain the world's economy will never recover.