Saturday, January 13, 2007

don't let's tarts

I went to a dinner party at Nina's, who has recently launched her Ask For An Ocean View companion site. The site's slogan is a spot-on distillation of Ninaness and worth clicking over just for that. Anyway, for the dinner, I bought a bottle over of Bogle wine, and explained that the reason that I bought it was that the name was an anagram of BLOG + E, for Blog Entrepeneur. Nina did a passable job of acting amused.

Not like the time shortly after I began at Madison and was invited to a beginning of the year party. I brought tarts. I said I brought them because "tarts" was an anagram of START and so seemed the rousing choice given the party theme. The person to whom I said this looked at me the way you might imagine someone would look if the seemingly ordinary conversationalist she had been talking with had been suddenly replaced by a two-headed space alien, especially if that alien had something incredibly disgusting hanging out of one of its noses.

Moral: If you are someone who enjoys anagram humor, understand that this is a lonesome joy that will only bring awkwardness and pain if you try to share it with others.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This might be the same expression I got when I told a group of faculty members and fellow students that I had a good feeling about a house I'd just purchased (and that I'd never seen) in the city where I was set to take my first job. My reasoning? Because it was 248 "Zanadu" and my dissertation chair's was 2424 "Zanadu", and well, if you take the last 2 and 4 in her address and multiply it, you get 248, so it's almost like the same address. I mean, what are the chances?

Uh huh.

It's a good thing we were at a fundraiser dinner with an open bar. Hopefully I'm the only one who remembers.

Anonymous said...

I think it's funny and clever! Had you brought the tarts to my party, I would have announced it with great fanfare to everyone, thereby broadening the awkwardness/pain, but at least giving you someone to share it with. Of course, the likelihood of my having a party is rather low...

Anonymous said...

I think these are fabulous. I especially like the "tarts" as they also could be taken, in anagram form, as a sort of symbolic food (which, as you know, I like).

I hereby double dare you to bring anagram'ed contributions to dinner parties in Cambridge.

Bonus points should you find anagrams to order from restaurant or bar menus.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, this is why I never fit in at Soc parties. Anagrams aren't funny to me. I mean, they're clever. But to me, they're like a step away from puns, of which I am no fan.

Sounds like you're not alone, though, Jeremy. Like I say, my, "Hey, does anyone here watch American Idol?" starter is always met by some wise-assed comment that "someone has too much time on her hands."

nina said...

In my defense, you say: why did I bring this particular wine? I think: Good price? nice shape? fine on the palate? you have sentimental attachment to red wine? I do not think: is there an anagram involved?
Besides, you asked when I was still sober.
As t Ocean View and Ninaness: thank you. I think. I do believe that there are some Ninanesses that are sort of, well weird.