It wasn’t till the next morning that I realized what deep shit I was in. I used the same joke later when we were talking about the BP oil spill and she said she was for the nuclear option, to blow it up and bury the well, to which I nodded and said, Why not let’s talk about string theory? I trust you on that subject as much as this one. Huh? Says I, Well golf is not something you really know anything about, so we might as well discuss your opinion of string theory. I asked her to go through the list of activities, not sports (cards, crosswords, billiards-anything you can smoke while doing) and generally agreed with her but I said firmly that golf is not an activity, it is a demanding sport and when she perseverated, I said, Why don’t we talk about string theory? She got a blank look. We were at a vacation house recently when she asseverated that golf is not a sport, it’s an activity. My wife’s older sister is the strongest in her clan and though we get along great, now and then I bridle.
In my bouts of therapy, I’ve always gone on and on about my mother’s power. I grew up in a matriarchy and married into a matriarchy.
