Gremlin in my attic

I have a way of putting my foot in my mouth at the wrong time. I outdid myself last night. We had been invited to a neighborhood thanksgiving meal by our wonderful friends Linda and Peter and there were about ten guests.

The food and the company was great.

We sat around and got to know each other better. And then for some strange reason I decided to talk about ugly automobiles. As in, the ugliest cars I have ever seen manufactured, those being the production of the American Motors Corporation. You remember, the Gremlin, Marlin, Pacer and Javelin? The nadir of the American car aesthetic, at least in my uninformed opinion.

No sooner had the words left my mouth then a deathly pallor hung on the room. What had I said and who had I offended? I tilted my head and surveyed the table...

"Ahem," said one of my fellow dining mates, who we will call "Larry" for the purposes of this blog. "I will have you know that I was a design engineer for AMC for thirty years."

Oh, my god, what had I done? That could not have just happened, could it? I swear to god, I didn't have a clue. This sort of stuff has been happening more and more lately...

There was not a lot more I could say at that point. I had made my feelings known and the die was cast. I waited a few more minutes, politely thanked my companions and then slunk off into the cold, dark night. What were the odds of my insulting a man for his career choice on a day that we should have all been giving thanks and counting our many blessings?

As I backed my car out of the long driveway I could not miss the license plate festooned on the car in front of me. See for yourself. Looks like old Larry wised up and bought a Dodge. Good move.

I need to learn how to exercise a little restraint.