Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Keynote Speaker

So, my flight at Midway is cancelled, and we schlep about an hour away to stay overnight. The next morning at 6 AM at O'Hare, the same tired set of frustrated travellers is in line to get on the next flight out. A woman in her fifties comes racing up to the front of the line, cutting in front of everyone else, with singular purpose. She notes to the woman at the desk for everyone to hear:
I have to get to Detroit right away. I'm the keynote speaker!

That she took her self so seriously and was so oblivious to our situation with all our important meetings, was comedy gold. It brought at first eye rolling from my fellow frustrated travellers, but then endless mirth for the next hour between my new buddies. The obtuseness of the statement was parody-perfect, and 'Detroit' was icing on the cake. Clearly, everyone had been to a seminar of some sort presided by such a smarmy woman, on "finding our cheese" or "enhancing gender equality" exercises where the men are separated from the women like we are back in 5th grade sex-ed class.

There's nothing funnier than real life. Note to self: never publicly say, "I can fix this, I'm an economist!"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Eric writes: Note to self: never publicly say, "I can fix this, I'm an economist!"

But the noted data-mining expert at CMU, Andew Moore, has this on his homepage:
***Primary goal in life: Occasion to use the phrase: "Let me through---I'm a Computer Scientist!".***