I’m like a Bert, I Ernie fly away

In which our Hero is victorious in strange and unsatisfying ways

The main receptionist at [Client] is someone that Hollywood finds odd and that I enjoy a great deal. So I’m perfectly willing to stay and chat with her when we both have the time.

The other day, she interrupted a conversation with a woman sitting in wait to haul us into it. “See her? She’s been living in Africa for a few months so we’re talking about geography. So here’s a quiz. What’s the capital of Kenya?”

I’m a smart guy with lots of general random knowledge and it’s not like Kenya doesn’t make the news, but I drew a complete and mortifying blank where Nairobi should have been.

“How about the capital of Turkey?” and another blank that is even more embarrassing because the answer is Ankhara rather than my guess of Istanbul, and I have no idea why I didn’t remember it from years of playing Avalon-Hill’s boardgame Diplomacy.

I defended myself by pointing out that Africa is one of the two continents I haven’t actually been to, so I haven’t had as much reason to learn about them. She asked what the other one was, so I told her Antarctica. She wondered what it’s capital was so I pointed out that it’s an international preserve.

Then she asked what about the Arctic, so I pointed out that there was no land under the ice and I guess she didn’t know about it because she was wide-eyed with new information, and said, “I always thought there was land underneath it.”

And this was my shining moment: “No, there’s no continent at the top, only at the bottom. That’s what keeps the world right side up.”

She kicked me out of reception.

It was totally worth it.

I should really have something in this entry about muppets to justify the title. I got nothing. The phrase just popped into my head and said “Write an entry, dumbass.” Yes, phrases are not kind to me.

An awkward bit of a first today at work. Someone got a ticket during my meeting. Seriously. “Uhh, guys, I have to drop off the call, I’m getting pulled over.”

Don’t drive and conference call, Gentle Reader. Or at least invest in a headset. This guy was using speaker, but they busted him because he was holding the phone.

Okay, fine, that Antarctica story wasn’t really worth a whole entry. But what else to write about?

Eh. Whatever it is can keep till tomorrow. Tonight it’s time to sleep.