Deft Returns (Conversation #4)

I think things translate well in screen format, and here’s an exchange that occured last night. Warning: the “Innapropriate Joke” (TM) – though not terribly crass – follows.

[Minor corrections here since my first post, via Tia’s different memory of some details. And might I add, as this was posted on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 – take this, you terrorists! Here in America we still consider doing things the American way!]


Sitting at the computer and accross the room from Alex, Tia is looking through her digital photograph portfolio.

TIA
Nope, nothing to show here.
ALEX
You should just do some nude photography. It would get you more attention [Like Michelangelo!].
TIA
No.
ALEX
(confused)
Did you think I was even half of a percent serious? Because I wasn’t. .. I was a quarter of a percent serious.
TIA
I’d love to, but there isn’t any time.
ALEX

(more confused)
What!?
TIA
Oh, did you say “nude?” I thought you said new!
ALEX
(laughing uncontrollably)
No, I said “nude”.

Without intending to, Tia provided some very deft, in-your-face retorts. This was a perfect way of handling my innapropriate joke, and she wasn’t even aware – it was all accidental. Playing along without any shock was an excellent way to deter.

And may I say that Tia’s photography is of notice. And there’s a veiled insult I didn’t intend in the comment; which is the lie that her photography doesn’t get a lot of notice. Everyone who came and happened on her BFA final show loved it (including me).