Just the other day, a friend praised me for how fast on my (mental) feet I am. I am, apparently, swift. Just today, I was singing a song as I walked, and LO AND BEHOLD a voice hearkened forth from the dorm.
"Your voice sucks!"
My reply? "Why, thank you!"
I could have said "My mother doesn't think so," or "Your mother doesn't think so," or "Dr. Kibble doesn't think so," (which may or may not be true, and he may not even know who she is) or "Sometimes I'm used as a form of illegal torture, but I'm out of a job since Guantanamo shut down," or "I've heard that from a lot of gay guys before," or VIRTUALLY ANYTHING EXCEPT WHAT I SAID.
L'esprit d'escalier. Staircaise Ghost, is what the french call it. Coming up with an insult hours after the fact. I assume that it happens a lot to other people too. I just wanted to let you all know that it is, in fact, a shortcoming that plagues me as well.
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I feel so much better knowing that, 'cause I do that all the time.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of starting a support group: "I Thought of Something Awesome and Have Nobody to Tell Anonymous."
Ohboy. That group would get a lot of members.
ReplyDeleteI don't do this so very often. It's more like . . . when I actually THINK about what I say after I say it, THEN I come up with something better. Most of the time, I just let conversations drop where they end.
Good for you. Want to be a groupie?
ReplyDeleteHaha, that happens to me ALL the time too! I'd have a lot of great comebacks if I was given 10 minutes to think before having to give a response.
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