Wednesday, December 10, 2008

A Dollop of Something Else

I'm at a walk-in clinic yesterday and I'm checking myself in. The girl behind the counter is entering my information into the computer and I'm just sort of standing there, handling the tchotchkes scattered around the counter top. Also on the counter, next to an industrial size box of facemasks (sinister), is an industrial size bottle of hand sanitizer.

This reminds me of a vignette from Barack Obama's book where he describes the first time he met George Bush. This was just after Obama had been elected to the senate and he was invited to the White House to meet the president. So he goes and Bush is there to greet him outside the White House. They shake hands. Immediately after they shake hands, and without so much as a word or a glance to anyone nearby, Bush reaches out his right hand to an aide and the aide squirts a big dollop of hand sanitizer into the president's hand. He rubs it all in with his other hand and then invites Obama in.

This is a really rather funny little story about Bush. (Why couldn't he just keep his paw out of his mouth for the next twenty minutes and then use the sanitizer after Obama left the room?) How was I to know I was telling it to a Palin-kateer?

It really isn't funny enough to relate in great detail, but suffice it to tell that the conversation took an odd turn. Governer Blogejevich was mentioned and the phrase "shows who Obama associates with" slithered across the counter at me. Forget that the two men hate one another or that Obama's people are the ones who got the feds on the case when they found out what Blagojevich was up to. Forget all that.

I just wanted to tell a funny little story about Bush and hand sanitizer. Was I mad to expect that one could tell such a story to an attractive young woman who sits behind a giant bottle of the stuff every day?

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