Guy Walks Into a Bar

Night before last, which would have been Thursday, I headed downtown to Jim's Tap for Science at the Pub. Friends of mine organize this once monthly lecture evening for us quirky intellectual types. Who enjoy having an adult beverage with their science. My friend Colleen's husband, who is a chemistry professor at our local SDSU, was speaking on green chemistry. This relatively recent ideology is taking root in the industrial world. The whole focus being on manufacturing goods and providing services in the most environmentally friendly way possible. I had the good fortune (my tongue is currently planted firmly in my cheek) to sit at what came to be known as the obnoxious table. With me were Colleen, and a couple of chemistry colleagues of the speaker, one of their spouses and another department worker. Colleen and the other women were polite. The colleagues were unabashedly obnoxious, bordering on heckler behavior. I was, in my irrepressibly charming way, somewhere in between. It was a high attendance night, with over seventy people present to improve their minds while drinking. After the presentation and convivial chat the crowd thinned out to the regulars. Then this guy walked in. Not just any guy, mind you, but a guy named Guy. In addition to looking a little lonely on his stool up at the bar, he had twinkly eyes and a really great smile. So I just had to talk to him. About all the forbidden subjects. Well, okay, mostly politics. It was fun and reassuring to have a reasonable and thoughtful discussion about politics with another South Dakotan. Sometimes it feels like there isn't room for a rational discussion in any forum any more! So refreshing to talk to someone who understands the difference between fact and opinion, rhetoric and truth, and how the current policy of entrenchment serves no one. Hi, Guy! I'm writing about you! Hope we can have a beer again really soon, it was very enjoyable.