ndrosen

When I boarded a Metro train a couple of evenings ago, the other man in the car asked me whether I was a comedian, and seemed to think that I was, maybe on TV. (There was just one other man that I recall; since I was gong in towards DC at an hour when most riders would be headed further out into Virginia, the train wasn’t crowded.) I told him no, I was a patent examiner, not a comedian. When he pressed me, I spoke of how I had performed at a talent show at the end of my senior year in college. I was a physics major, and went on to graduate school, but I did tell jokes that drew some laughter; I didn’t win an award.

I don’t know why this man took me for a comedian, or decided to play with me by pretending that he did. It was just one of life’s odd encounters.