I ask that because I’ll be meeting with her this evening for drinks (with a chaperone, mind you — our own Kathryn Fenner).
The plan is to sit out on the front porch and chat. Me, I’ll be tempted to go into Andy Griffith/Barney Fife mode:
Andy: You know what would be a good idea? If we all went up town and got a bottle of pop?
Barney: That’s a good idea, if we all went up town to get a bottle of pop.
Andy: You think Mr. Tucker would like to go?
Barney: Why don’t we ask him…..if he’d like to go uptown to get a bottle of pop?
Andy: Mr. Tucker?
(No response from Mr. Tucker)
Andy: You wanna lets me and you go?
Barney: Where?
Andy: Uptown to get a bottle of pop?
(Camera pans to a sleeping Mr. Tucker, with a completely peeled apple skin dangling from
his hand.)
I would think talkin’ ’bout goin’ to get a bottle of pop would be the height of wit. But it occurs to me that Kathryn and the Tart would just stare blankly, not being old enough to have the shared cultural experience…
As I prepare mentally for this meeting — we plan to talk important blog bidness — I’m reflecting on something I learned over the weekend: My daughter says someone asked her the other day if she were related to that Brad Warthen. She allowed as how she was. The asker then said she had read the guest spot I did for the Tart, then asked, “Does he write anywhere else? I’d like to read more.”
The woman had no idea who I was.
Back during the presidential campaign of 2008, I got used to getting called by national media folk who only knew me as a blogger, having no idea that my paying job was editorial page editor of the state’s largest newspaper.
Now this.
Turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes…
Dude, I think The Shop Tart and you would get along jus’ fine without a chaperone–one doesn’t wish to intimate that you’re not in her league, so perhaps the better course is to aver that you are both apparently quite happily married. I think my real role is “translator.”
I believe The Shop Tart might be a useful source for Mother’s Day gift ideas, for example, or places one might take Mother to dine.
I love reading both of your daily writings and think you and the ST are going to like each other very much.
Cheers!
PS: ST prefers bottles with corks that pop vs pop in the bottles.
Pop vs Soda?
I am so bamboozled. It’s been twelve years since I spent seven months in Iowa!
Iowa has their own dialect: a draft beer, down here, is called a draw up there. “You bet!” is a common phrase.
Down here, we ask “Do you want a Coke?” knowing that you understand what we asked. You could answer “No, I want a Pepsi”.
Iowa: The Other Four Letter State.
PS: I did have fun when I was in Iowa; my wife says probably too much fun. But I did water ski on two rivers: the Mississippi and the Cedar. Water skiing on the Mississippi up by the Quad Cities was very cool! And a bit frigid in June.
In Boston, of course, a “pop” means a beer.
And the Tart knows her beer. She served Yours Truly Yuengling, one after another, and you can’t say fairer than that…
Well, Brad, I do not know much about beer, as I do not drink it myself. I did used to be a bartender, I do love to host a party and I do know how to do research. (I searched for “beer” on your blog, then asked my husband what someone who enjoys Yuengling draft at Yesterday’s might enjoy. I also knew you were not opposed to Budweiser, which I remembered from a long-ago allergic boyfriend was wheat-free. Ergo, I thought you might like Bud simply for its guaranteed freedom from wheat. But the Yuengling looked fancier, so I got that.)
I thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Kathryn last night and keep my fingers crossed that I will not be quoted about anything serious on your blog!
A
@Ralph
My mother-in-law, a New England brahmin, likes to tell the joke about the young man who came to dinner with his fiancee’s fancy Boston family. The formidable mother asked where he was from. He replied, “Iowa.” Mother corrected him, “Here we pronounce that ‘Ohio.'”
My extended family in Buffalo always offers us “paap.”
And the Tart need not fear being quoted. She said the evening was off the record. ‘Nuff said.
And Kathryn, thanks for the introduction and for presiding!
I tried to keep y’all on the agenda, but I guess the agenda was to get acquainted, which y’all certainly did.
I had a blast!!