#151 Rummy

I was going to a rendezvous with someone and I was a little nervous. I decided I would act nonchalant and it occurred to me: What the heck is all this French stuff? Why “rendezvous” when “meeting” would have done equally well? And what the heck is non-chalant? Does that mean when you are concerned you are chalant? I’m chalant about your welfare. Susie’s grades slipping has me acting chalant. Its English synonym, “indifferent” is even worse. If I’m indifferent about a situation and that means I’m relatively unconcerned, then if I really am interested in the same situation, am I different to it? She told me she loved me but I was different. Hmmm.
I saw an interesting invitation the other day. At the end of it, it said “RSVP Please.” Always a pet peeve of mine. My one quarter of high school French rears its ugly head every now and then and winces. RSVP means “respondez s’il vous plait.” Which is French, roughly, for respond please. “S’il vous plait” sort of means “if you please.” So when someone says “RSVP please” they are saying “respond if you please please.” Oops. Normally, I expect to see that on invitations from people who don’t know better. All well and good, we Americans bend language to our needs, for shizzle, not the other way around. But this invitation came from St Martin’s University. Not only, mind you, a university, but one steeped in a Catholic and presumably Latin tradition. French kind of has a, ahem, Latin origin. Maybe they just really wanted me to reply. Respond Please PLEASE...
I’m never sure if anybody has any idea what words mean. Frankly, it all makes me a little rummy sometimes. The other day I was driving behind this big gas-guzzling truck. It was about four stories tall and had giant tires on it. Its body was streamlined of course, but by the time the owner had got done tricking it out, there were so many fuel-inefficient un-streamlines on it that I’m sure it lost an extra mile or two a gallon. Anyhow, it had a vanity license plate which said “Overtaxed.” Now, granted I’m a blithering idiot sometimes. But if I felt overtaxed I probably wouldn’t pay extra for my license plate. I mean, didn’t the whole Eyeman tax revolt start with voting down higher license fees?
Maybe my problem is, I’m just too different sometimes...
America, ya gotta love it.