Posted by Scott Eberle on 05/11/2012
The French have a saying: les pensées d’escalier, “thoughts on the stairs,” or in America, we say, “what I shoudda said.” Usually the perfect comeback doesn’t come to you until you’re leaving the event—in your overcoat on the stairwell—and it can do you no good. The witty riposte that surfaces fills you with regret. Alas, I had one of these experiences recently at a meet and greet for Lance Armstrong. He was scheduled to speak at the Ride for Roswell, a fundraiser for Western New York’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute, held at the University at Buffalo. I stationed myself by the exit and hung there meaning to catch Armstrong after he’d received congratulations for his talk and inspiration. That clever strategy set me up for a les pensées d’escalier in reverse. Handlers chose to enter via the exit door instead, and before I knew it, one of the planet’s most famous athletes had me by the hand. All I could think to burble before he moved on to the second star-struck fan was, “Lance…wow!”
Posted by Joan Hoffman on 04/27/2012
Less than a minute into my scheduled interview with world-renowned sculptor Albert Paley, we knew we had a problem. I wanted to talk about how he played as a child, but Paley wanted to know what I meant by play. And just like that he became the interviewer and I was the one reaching for…
Posted by Scott Eberle on 04/19/2012
I’m a bit of a mossback when it comes to language. Specialized usages and jargon set my teeth on edge. So when I overheard the rent-a-cop at the county fair lean into his walkie-talkie with “what’s your six?” when “where are you?” would do perfectly well, I started to grind molar enamel. But of course…
Posted by Scott Eberle on 04/12/2012
Did you know that it’s rumored that a simple game helped counterintelligence agents discover Russian Spies? For decades, this classic psychology experiment based in a simple, funny, yet devilish game continues to demonstrate how play reveals the inner working of our minds. Try this. Read the following set of words out loud: Red Blue …
Posted by Scott Eberle on 04/05/2012
During one of my recent late night channel-surfing interludes, I came to rest on the classic film Northwest Passage (1940). Spencer Tracy stars in the role of Major Rogers, dashing leader of the ragtag Rogers Rangers, a militia that patrolled the Lake Champlain region in the French and Indian War as it is still known…
Posted by Joan Hoffman on 03/30/2012
Fun for me is talking with people at the top of their field, finding out how they got there, and hearing them trace the roots of their fascination. I like a good chat about the whys and wherefores of being a person who has fundamentally changed how we think about something. With just such a…
Posted by Scott Eberle on 03/23/2012
With free-agent superstar quarterback Peyton Manning headed to Denver and Tim Tebow to New York, I’m left wondering at the residue that fleeting celebrity leaves behind and how kids at play take in fame and make of it something of their own. And here I turn to my sister-in-law Lynn, who puts the “fanatic” in…
Posted by Scott Eberle on 03/16/2012
Alas, the letter with the little red complimentary AARP membership card comes to us all in good time. I tore mine up because it seemed the quickest and most expressive way to deny the passage of time. But denial didn’t keep me from perusing the instructive AARP website, or from spending a half hour with…
Posted by Scott Eberle on 03/09/2012
On a sunny, stormy Sunday in late February we took ourselves and our goldendoodle, The Dood, to the broad beach at the mouth of the Genesee to watch the spindrift and to chase castaway flip flops. The Dood can run down the flotsam we toss, but being only 50% retriever, he hasn’t yet mastered the…
Posted by Scott Eberle on 03/05/2012
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences found themselves in a historicizing mood this year as two films (one showily silent and in black in white, the other in lavish 3D) harked back to the early days of French filmmaking. Between them, The Artist and Hugo, walked away with 10 Oscars. The two movies…
The French have a saying: les pensées d’escalier, “thoughts on the stairs,” or in America, we say, “what I shoudda said.” Usually the perfect comeback doesn’t come to you until you’re leaving the event—in your overcoat on the stairwell—and it can do you no good. The witty riposte that surfaces fills you with regret. Alas, I had one of these experiences recently at a meet and greet for Lance Armstrong. He was scheduled to speak at the Ride for Roswell, a fundraiser for Western New York’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute, held at the University at Buffalo. I stationed myself by the exit and hung there meaning to catch Armstrong after he’d received congratulations for his talk and inspiration. That clever strategy set me up for a les pensées d’escalier in reverse. Handlers chose to enter via the exit door instead, and before I knew it, one of the planet’s most famous athletes had me by the hand. All I could think to burble before he moved on to the second star-struck fan was, “Lance…wow!”
