we’re at Tu Tu Tango<\/a> in Atlanta. There’s about a dozen of us, but one of us, let’s call him Clark, was coming separately. Seemed he had an old bud in town, and they were going to hook up, then meet us at the restaurant.<\/p>\nWe’re seated at the table, it’s noisy, I’m about mid-way along one side, and Clark comes in with his friend. They sit, and Clark is introducing us to him, and the guy stops and stares at me. “Dave? Dave Hill?”<\/p>\n
Blink.<\/p>\n
“You don’t remember me? High school?”<\/p>\n
“Uhhhhhh …”<\/p>\n
Okay, I have a notoriously bad memory for faces, and particularly for associating names with faces. Really, really, really bad. Bad enough that I take “compensating” strategies to try to figure out, when someone says, “Just go over and ask Joe-Bob,” which one Joe-Bob (“Damn, that name is familiar”) is. And, if possible, I try to avoid that sort of situation altogether.<\/p>\n
“Evan. Evan Green? You don’t remember?”<\/p>\n
I feel a hot flush of embarrassment (mercifully, the lighting was murky). What the hell do you say in a case like this? Lie about it? Maybe, in a passing conversation, but I was stuck at the dinner table with this guy. So I was mature enough to instead shake my head and say, “I’m sorry, I’m drawing a blank.”<\/p>\n
He stared at me. “I can’t believe you don’t remember me! Red hair? Frizzy out like this?”<\/p>\n
Now I’m trying to picture this guy twenty-five years ago, probably (maybe?) thinner, with hair like he describes. He does <\/em>seem strangely familiar. And I think I knew some guys, at least in passing, who had frizzy red hair. Maybe some guy from Ft Collins, during my several month stint there … “Uh … maybe.”<\/p>\n“I can’t believe you don’t remember me. Man …” He shakes his head, a bit dismayed. <\/p>\n
I’m still drawing a blank, though. And I’m feeling really embarrassed, both for the insult to this guy in not remembering him (especially when he remembers me, and, apparently, fondly) and in such a lapse occurring in front of the group.<\/p>\n
He laughs. “You remember Theresa?”<\/p>\n
“Theresa?”<\/p>\n
“The gal with the streak in her hair?”<\/p>\n
“Uuuuhhhh … maybe? Yeah, maybe. Rings a bell.” I’m getting a modicum of composure back. Everybody
\n“draws a blank” at times, and “rings a bell” is a great way to sound like you’re not a total dork. And there were people I hung with at times in high school (all three schools) whose names I barely knew then — theater folk, for example, and in the choir. Bad with names, remember? <\/p>\n
Theresa … Theresa … Evan … his face did seem a little familiar …<\/p>\n
“So you know him from high school?” Tommy, one of the CIO’s directs, and an old friend of mine, asks from across the table. <\/p>\n
“Evidently,” I say, dryly, mockingly skeptical.<\/p>\n
“I can’t believe the expression on your face. I’ve never seen you stumped before.”<\/p>\n
I laugh with him. Always the best way to deal with something like that.<\/p>\n
“No, I mean it.” Tommy turns to another of the CIO’s directs, Rick. “This guy’s got the greatest memory around. He remembers everything.”<\/p>\n
Yeah, if it’s Babylon 5<\/em> trivia, or some cool thing I once read on BoingBoing, maybe.<\/p>\n“I mean it. Great memory. Never seen him so flustered.”<\/p>\n
I shrug.<\/p>\n
“Dave?” Evan says from the end of the table.<\/p>\n
“Yeah?”<\/p>\n
“I’m just kidding you. I don’t really know you.”<\/p>\n
My jaw drops.<\/p>\n
“Clark here said you were a fun guy, and I thought I’d string you along.”<\/p>\n
I laugh. He’d actually done it quite well, and if it weren’t that I’m still, at that point, so mortified, I’d’ve been able to appreciate it better. I wasn’t even embarrassed for having been spoofed; I was still (irrationally) getting over that numbing embarrassment of not having recognized him.<\/p>\n
For what it’s worth, Evan did seem like a decent guy, and I wish I’d been sitting down closer to him to chat. I did toss a few comments to him as the evening progressed, “reminiscing” about our days in high school, the time we got stoned in the back of his van, going along with the now-exposed joke like a good sport. And it was fun.<\/p>\n
And I’m sure I’ll hear the story of it again, probably from Tommy (or from someone Tommy’s told). Hopefully I’ll laugh more sincerely with it.<\/p>\n
I just think it’s interesting that I forgot completely about the anecdote until just now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am probably too-easily mortified by embarrassing things I do. Just an observation. So we’re at Tu Tu Tango in Atlanta. 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Like you could just click a button, and say, \"Hey, I like the posts Joe-Bob makes on Movies, Work, and Cheese, but I wish...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23011,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/09\/dave-does-the-comics-%e2%80%93-issue-13-9-oct-2011.html","url_meta":{"origin":6919,"position":1},"title":"***Dave Does the Comics \u2013 Issue 13 (9 Oct 2011)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 9-Oct-11 3:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Lucky Thirteen! We touch on some continuing books and some new titles out this week. As always, I welcome recommendations for new titles to try out or review. UPDATE: I realized, after I had the podcast put to bed, that I hadn't explained really why I thought Action Comics #2\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "***Dave Does the Comics"","block_context":{"text":"***Dave Does the Comics","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics\/dave-does-the-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/morning-glories_vol2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/morning-glories_vol2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/morning-glories_vol2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7441,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/05\/scary_stories.html","url_meta":{"origin":6919,"position":2},"title":"Scary stories","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 5-Mar-05 9:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"Granted that we have very few solid details here, but this certainly has all the marks of blind bureaucratic ZTosity. A George Rogers Clark High School junior arrested Tuesday for...","rel":"","context":"In "Writing and Language"","block_context":{"text":"Writing and Language","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/writing-and-language"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27448,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/18\/rip-dick-clark.html","url_meta":{"origin":6919,"position":3},"title":"RIP Dick Clark","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Apr-12 1:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dorian Gray finally passes away. Perhaps it will finally get him to slow down. #ddtbReshared post from +Alex Grossman Embedded Link Dick Clark Dies -- Dead at 82 Dick Clark -- famed TV producer, and \"New Year's Rockin' Eve\" host -- died from a massive heart attack this morning ...\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42206,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/26\/dave-does-the-comics-2014-05-26.html","url_meta":{"origin":6919,"position":4},"title":"Dave Does the Comics (2014-05-26)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-May-14 1:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been pretty bad about keeping up with reviewing comics -- or in plowing through my stacks of GNs\/TPBs. Here are a few collections I've gotten through lately (with links to longer reviews at GoodReads):Satellite Sam, Vol. 1 - Howard Chaykin's homage to the early days of TV is full\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/18765961%5B1%5D.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4930,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/02\/sauce_for_the_g.html","url_meta":{"origin":6919,"position":5},"title":"Sauce for the goose","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Dec-03 9:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"While there's probably no known reason to worry about the PM of New Zealand being a terrorist (though one never can quite tell about NZ types), I really don't see...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}