Cleveland Gossip
Despite it being Valentine's day, I managed to get reservations at a tasty restaurant for dinner. The table next to me had a pair of middle aged ladies. Like me, they were in full white-collar professional dress - pumps, diamond stud earrings, makeup requiring more than five minutes to apply along with the business jacket and button down blouse - so I take it they were also stopping for dinner after work. I am not sure what these ladies do, but it touches on politics somehow.
Their conversation - liberally dotted with deserved exclamations about how yummy the food was - caught my ear while they were talking about Hillary Clinton. "The media gave her so much slack when she teared up, and now look at her. She can do anything she wants. That's revenge." I've not gotten to hear a conversation about Hillary Clinton had by her contemporary supporters that wasn't tainted by the presence of a younger woman in need of vetting and indoctrinating. What would I'm sure normally be a frank and interesting conversation, if I'm known to be listening, picks up a subtext of, "That's the kind of woman who made you possible and you owe her and you'd better know it," except when it isn't subtext and the ladies in question just say it. Should any ladies prone to having that conversation be reading this, please note: I found the untainted conversation a lot more intriguing, so I actually listened this time.
They went on from there to talking about local politics in Cleveland. I don't know anything about the local politics; I don't live here and I won't be spending any more time here come June so I don't care. But then the lady sitting across from me leans in close to the other one. "You know, I was talking about this with XXX earlier. And she'd been talking with YYY. She says they're getting committee together. She's going to make a run for Mayor." "Oh, really?" says the other lady. "Don't spread it around yet. They don't want it leaked before they announce."
I don't even remember the names for XXX and YYY, so I couldn't leak it if I wanted to. But I'm so very, very amused. That's got to be one of the most fascinating conversations I've eavesdropped on in a long, long time.
Their conversation - liberally dotted with deserved exclamations about how yummy the food was - caught my ear while they were talking about Hillary Clinton. "The media gave her so much slack when she teared up, and now look at her. She can do anything she wants. That's revenge." I've not gotten to hear a conversation about Hillary Clinton had by her contemporary supporters that wasn't tainted by the presence of a younger woman in need of vetting and indoctrinating. What would I'm sure normally be a frank and interesting conversation, if I'm known to be listening, picks up a subtext of, "That's the kind of woman who made you possible and you owe her and you'd better know it," except when it isn't subtext and the ladies in question just say it. Should any ladies prone to having that conversation be reading this, please note: I found the untainted conversation a lot more intriguing, so I actually listened this time.
They went on from there to talking about local politics in Cleveland. I don't know anything about the local politics; I don't live here and I won't be spending any more time here come June so I don't care. But then the lady sitting across from me leans in close to the other one. "You know, I was talking about this with XXX earlier. And she'd been talking with YYY. She says they're getting committee together. She's going to make a run for Mayor." "Oh, really?" says the other lady. "Don't spread it around yet. They don't want it leaked before they announce."
I don't even remember the names for XXX and YYY, so I couldn't leak it if I wanted to. But I'm so very, very amused. That's got to be one of the most fascinating conversations I've eavesdropped on in a long, long time.