My daughter spent a large portion of her teenage years playing on high class soccer teams (read “Expensive”).
We were on the lower end of the teams socioeconomic spectrum. There were architects, podiatrists, thoracic surgeons, dermatologists, miscellaneous flavors of captains of industry and at least four college professors. And then there was us – Yunzers!
Those of you who know me know that I have a head full of odd trivia, awkward history, and a bullet proof sense of humor.
I got into a conversation with one of the professor dads. Turns out he taught French literature at a large nationally known division one university. I said, “The only French novel I recall reading is Nana by Emile Zola.”
In an astonished voice, he blurted out, “You’ve read Nana?”
“Yes. Twice actually. Once in college and once about 8 years ago.”.
“What did you think of it”, he asked.
“Well, It was a rags to riches story of the underbelly of late 17th century French society with a terribly tragic end. I also think that Dan Brown used Nana as a prototype for his American southern gothic novel ‘Fay’.”
He said, “That’s quite astute”.
I said, “Thanks, I’m trying to become a genius”.
He said, “Interesting. I need to ask – What objective criteria are you relying on to measure your progress toward being a genius?”
I said, “I was kidding,” and walked away.