secret agent man

last night i saw two friends i hadn't seen in some time. one of them is like a character out of 'his girl friday.' she talks about 100 miles an hour (and i am too a fast talker but not like her), the other is an artist. anyways, the fast talker asked me about another mutual friend, a fellow who got a phd in history and speaks spanish and italian and portuguese and now works...well, that's the thing, none of us could say for sure exactly it is he does, though he eschewed the academic life for business and i think he does things to do with telecommunications and latin america but now it might be telecommunications and marketing or just marketing. and the fast talker thought perhaps possibly he is in the c-i-a because he is somewhat demure in explaining piece by piece what it is he does.

i guess it could be. he could be a secret agent man. right now he's in ghana with his wife (a friend too and a faithful reader of this blog). the few people i've known who were in the agency did not hide the fact of their employer, but were discreet about what they did for their employer. truth is i kind of distrust those folks which is knee jerk. i used to joke around with some friends that my father was in the c-i-a. it'd be perfect--a speaker of hebrew, arabic, reading ability of german, french, probably some other languages too, seems like a mild mannered professor, but why must he always go to meetings in morocco or tunisia or egypt or southern france. working until midnight every night of my childhood. rising at 7 so he could be at his desk by 9 sharp. that kind of discipline only a spy could have, don't you thinks? what a wonderful fantasy to have about your old man, like wishing you were in truth born to royalty or to italians who have a villa in sardinia and grill their own sardines.

so, my friends charged me with asking this friend of ours if he is in the c.i.a. or floating the theory. i am to gage his rxn and to make clear that i am articulating the suggestion of the fast talker. but who knows when i see him next, though hopefully when he and the little lady return to here. so i'm posting this on account of this way i know they'll see it.

and in other news: my lips are again so chapped but i think i left my little bag of ointments at home (or else the lady sitting with too big a coat and her legs spread so that i had to squeeze next to her on the subway swiped it out of my purse as penalty for not giving her as wide a berth as she might have desired). so now i think i gots to run out to the fine duane reade and buy some of that roche posay pour les levres seches. then, let the games begin!