Nice to meet you... again

Saw Motorcycle Diaries yesterday. More than anything it taught me that asthma makes you more accepting of lepers. The end of the movie confused me though. Did it take fifty-two years for Che’s flight to take off from Caracas, all the while his friend stood watching it? That’s what I call loyalty to a fault. (Or was that supposed to be some sort of fancy cinematic device like symbolism?)

I think more parents should teach their kids some random skill from a very young age so that by the time the kid grows up he's incredibly deft with chopsticks, for example. Sure you might feel guilty when he’s 3 and he’s crying because he’s got splinters and he’s starving and his hand-eye coordination isn’t nearly developed enough for him to get any food with the chopsticks, but 19 years later when he’s out on a date and his date comments that he’s “really good with those” he’ll be appreciative of your foresight.

Speaking of mild forms of torture I think tickling proves that we as humans are somewhat sadistic. Nobody likes being tickled and everybody knows that. Yet we justify tickling people because they can’t help but laugh when tickled. Somewhere along the evolutionary line our knee-jerk reaction to being tickled should have changed from giddy laughter to uncontrollable rapid-fire throat-chops to the person tickling us. The fact that we laugh at the onset of such an unpleasant experience is really unfortunate. Imagine if getting kicked in the shin made you sigh contentedly. People would be dishing out shin-kicks left and right knowing full well they hurt like hell but pretending it’s cool because of the reaction they elicit. Just my normal Sunday train of thought.

I think a good social rule of thumb is to never be the first one to answer when a friend of yours is “introducing” you to another acquaintance of theirs and your friend asks if you guys have ever met before. Let them reply first and then just agree with their answer. It’s all about minimizing awkwardness potential. Or if you find a little social tension amusing you can aggressively insist the opposite of what they say. “The hell we haven’t!”

Good thing winter hasn’t begun quite yet cause man, that’s a chilly season. Enjoy your last day of fall.