“It’s just all so terribly romantic…”

About ten years ago, at a more bad than good job, I met Brent.  We were never close friends, but I traveled and worked with him enough to get to know him a bit.

Brent was, and is, an imposing fellow.  I’d guess he’s 6’3″ and perhaps 240 lbs., but not at all overweight—just a big guy.  He has classically attractive chiseled features, and a big booming voice that brings instant credibility to anything that comes out of his mouth.  I’m (thankfully) not wired for a lot of envy, but I envied that.  Brent could tell you the weather forecast, and you’d pay it more mind than you would the president talking about a nuclear attack.

He occasionally played it for laughs, which is closing on my point (promise).  Once Charlie and I were out on the sidewalk discussing a project.  He came up behind us, put a hand on each of our backs, and said “gentlemen, I’ve been doing a little research.  I’ve examined the findings, and I’ve talked to upper management.  I think there just might be something to this World Wide Web thing.”

Heh.  Thanks, Brent.

So this was also right around the time our esteemed president decided it was a good idea to place his penis in Monica Lewinsky’s mouth, and Brent loved that too.  He’d come up and say “you know, for me, the tragic thing that’s being lost in this whole Monica Lewinsky scandal is that it’s just all so terribly romantic.” Heh again.  It was good for a laugh because it was so ridiculous.

Funny how the humor of a decade ago becomes the reality of today.

We know, thanks to an excruciatingly lengthy hand-wringing press conference, as well as multiple embarrassing emails, that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford has had an Argentinian mistress.  I applauded his wife’s absence at the press conference, and greatly appreciated what she has had to say about trying to put her family back together, and screw his political career.  That’s awesomely good sense about what really matters, and it’s too rare anymore.

Except Rush was talking today about how gaga some folks are about the dear governor’s love letters.  “The man was a real romantic with a knack for writing,” gushes “romance coach” Leslie Karsner.  The Associated Press can’t wait for you to know that “South Carolina Governor Tells AP that Mistress Is His Soulmate.”  Any words from anyone about the sanctity of marriage (well, besides his wife)?

Well, the usually-wise Mona Charen did ask “how about avoiding adultery?“  But I mean, hell, she’s a fringe lunatic conservative.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Possibly related posts (automatically generated):

1. Missing you terribly ...
2. On the eve of this Thanksgiving… I give thanks for my beautiful family.  I give thanks for my friends.  I give thanks for my continued career success.  I am blessed beyond...
3. Eat the rich, take 700 I have a dragnet out for reasonable people describing the complaints and goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  If you know of such, or...
4. Rich I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m probably not going to be a multimillionaire.  Oh, I still hold out the hope that somehow I’ll...
5. Runaway Slave This video, and effort, came to my attention late last week because of kemtee.  (She’s good like that.  I’m so glad we overlapped.) I liked...