On a recent trip to Manhattan for a television appearance, my wife and I sat at the Tonic Bar near Times Square. With the day’s work behind us, we nibbled appetizers and had a couple of drinks as we waited for a performance of Jersey Boys.
“I don’t know how they do it,” said the server.
The twentysomething was referring to what was then on Chive TV, the ubiquitous bar entertainment playing on all the flat screens. A guy on a skateboard was performing some sort of extraordinary aerial cartwheel — or was it someone on a snowmobile or a jet ski? No matter, the remarkable nature of it had led her to socio-political speculation.
Our server attributed the athletic skill to living in Middle america where people have nothing better to do.
Friendly and professional, our server had nonetheless misidentified her guests as sharing the joke on the hairy unwashed masses living in what is here otherwise referred to as “flyover country.”
