[Rhodes22-list] STANding out from the crowd

[Joe Camp]

NB  (or "note well" in literary vernacular)

     Everyone (or nearly everyone) in the R-22 grandSTANd wished the mighty mister Spitzer a warm and happy birthday on or close to the actual date.  As more Rhodies did this, the result was a classic "dog-pile on the rabbit" scenario. I underSTANd the tug of social and cultural responsibility, but I really make it a point to try to set myself aside in nearly every endeavor.  (For example, I resolved to part my hair on the right side... the girl side... at the age of twelve).  Despite the fact that I love STAN as much as the next (or former) Rhodie, the relative value of tossing my declaration atop the pile meant that it would be lost in the congratulatory soup of similarly expressed wishes.  Thus, would I relegate myself to just another "happy birthday" in STAN's overall perception of the worship of his anxiety-ridden minions. 

     So, here it is, well past the birthday (day) and I have chosen this outSTANding opportunity to set myself apart (again) and say "many more, STAN."  It's like making one's self fashionably late to a posh posh party so as to STANd out in the perception of the early arrivals (now well imbibed on the host's booze, to STANd out in the perception of the host, himself. Then, in truly egotistically managed  precision, to announce that lateness, calling more attention onto the lateness and forcing the host to forgive that transgression in the long established tradition of turning the other cheek. 

     Now, I am the center of attention, and everyone notices what I am wearing.  Now, I am the talk of the party... and the next party (for which I also will be late).
I amble to the bar, dangle a crisp twenty over the tip glass and smile at the frazzled bartender:

"I'll have a VO and water please, splash of lime. I'm Joe, see you in about twenty minutes.  Where's the birthday boy?"

Joe Camp
s/v John Dawson
on the hard in Horsham, PA
and dreaming of mid-april