3.30.2005

Puppy dogs' tails and sugar and spice


It is strange how you don't recognise stereotypical behaviour in your life until you see a parallel course running through someone else's.

"So H. plans his entire year through sports," proclaimed S. as we sat at lunch. "It starts with football, golf, basketball. And I don't even want to know the details, but I do! Seriously, just because he's talking about it so much I get to know the players' names, what they did or didn't do..."
"Wait," I said, a sudden flow of recognition in my head. "Does your husband watch ESPN so much that he would never realise if the other channels went missing?"
S. nodded.
"Oh my God." I sank deep into my chair. "This is exactly what is happening to me. M. watches ESPN all the time. That's why I know who A-Rod is. I don't even call him Alex Rodriguez - it's just A-Rod."
S. laughed aloud. "I mean, tell me about it," she said. "Who would have thought? But do you know it works the other way round? When I complain about this to H., he says, 'Wait a minute, I didn't want to know who this Manolo Blahnik guy is. I'm a guy, why the heck do I even know this name?'"
"Ah. You've trained him," I said, nodding. "I think M. has yet to recognise that name." But then I thought about it and realised I had educated him on the important matter of designer jeans - specifically, 7 for All Mankind jeans - to the point where M. sent me an article about the company being bought up by Bear Stearns.

I thought about this some more last weekend as M. went off with his boys to spend hours over the fantasy baseball league draft while I went shopping with my friends.

12:14 PM |