I love bits of overheard conversation. Taken out of context, they sparkle on their own and remain fixed in memory. This is my friend Jacques (the photo taken when he was a student of mine in Summit High School some 35+ years ago.) Years later, when Jacques was walking through Boston’s North End, he heard two women speaking in Italian. Suddenly one turned on the other and snapped in English, “I was talking about the lentils!” Years after that, my friend Nick, Christmas shopping on NYC’s Fifth Avenue, heard someone arguing, “Right? I know I’m right!” It was Jacques mid-fight with his boyfriend. But my absolute favorite bit (among hundreds) was when Nick and I had arrived in Paris on the day after Christmas, 2005, jet-lagged and walking toward lunch at Bon Marché when we heard two young British women (you must hear this in a British accent.) One was making a point to the other: “So she said to me, ‘Go! Have lunch with Lola!’” Maybe you had to be there.
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