THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 20, 1995 TAG: 9503200113
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
From the Eastern Shore comes the simplest solution of what to say to your boss the second time in the day that you meet him or her in the hall. The second greeting on the Shore is simply: ``This time.''
That's all. No great hue and cry over the meeting or labored efforts to be witty, just a quick acknowledgment - ``This time. . . '' - of the second go-round of the day.
A mere verbal tip of the hat. It would, I suppose, stand you in good stead at even a third meeting.
The boss can nod or, perhaps, say something as stark, such as ``So be it.''
Most bosses, I suspect, would favor a slight inclining of the head.
The word from the Shore came from Jeanne Wight in Pungoteague. She used to be a financial analyst in the state budget office.
On the Shore, they tend to be spare in talk, most of the time and especially to strangers, as if words are pearls. They reduce things to essentials.
Ed Wight, Jeanne's husband, told me that on the Eastern Shore they don't have lawn mowers.
They call 'em grass cutters.
Conversations, free of a lot of idle chatter, are restful. With long pauses in which to let your minds swing, as if in a hammock.
You have time to read between the lines. There's no place I'd rather spend the day than the Eastern Shore. (Two of my Chincoteague friends, Bob and Emma Lasche, have on their car a bumper sticker: THERE'S NO LIFE WEST OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY.)
Coming back to the mainland, there is in a college office hereabouts a bright young woman, forward-looking, who doesn't want to waste a minute in persiflage so she always is ready with something of import as one of her bosses approaches.
``I saw Jack Perquimans downtown yesterday,'' she cries. ``He said to say hello.''
That puts the ball in the boss' court, who would be wise to reply, ``Next time you see him tell him I said hello.''
By the time the boss sees you after the first passage, he or she is usually formulating in mind something for you to do.
To divert him or her, I come up fast with whatever pops in my mind like a gopher.
Or goofer.
Just yesterday an extremely acute young woman appeared in the hall.
Four paces away from her, I shouted: ``Hey, that's a great hat you're wearing! Where did you find it? On the Left Bank?''
``I'm not wearing a hat,'' she said. ``It would be if you was!'' I shot back. And took off in a dead run.
A former high school teacher recalled how, upon meeting her boss the third time, she said: ``Third round, your beer!''
She can see to this day the startled look on his face. The expression came, she believes, from her childhood in Chicago.
Any of you ever hear it? by CNB