Great Minds Think Alike ...

... they say, and fools seldom differ, they add. As for me, I think what makes great minds great is the fact that they don't have a problem with being called fools. Be that as it may, my point in this post is to bring to your attention the fact that the creator of Dilbert is more or less as sartorially challenged as I am - a fact that gives me some comfort at times when I feel small and overwhelmed by haute couture. Check it out - http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/03/the_best_defect.html. Maybe my blog is not as funny as his, and maybe I'm not as prolific a blogger (or cartoonist) as he is. After all, I have other ways to make a living and (hopefully) am good at those. But hey - this is uncanny - he says "I rely on my wife to do the heavy lifting, fashion-wise". Somewhere some small part of me felt vindicated when I read that. I am not alone, it seems.

A minor success in my shopping career (and cause for some jubilation) is that recently, after spending long hours at large malls in small obscure towns (side note: in one such large mall in one such small obscure town called Pleasanton in California, I heard someone call out to me by name ... turned out to be a former colleague who moved there "after marriage" - hard evidence that the world is indeed shrinking) and after getting the specifications wrong, going through the returns process etc., I eventually managed to procure perfume and lingerie that my wife actually liked.

And oh - not to mention having to lug a bright pink umbrella (didn't fit into any of my bags) which came free with the Estée Lauder box (side note: how can a perfume be called Beautiful and Love at the same time?) across as many airports as mentioned parenthetically in my last blog post, and the corresponding number of flights. It takes courage for a heterosexual male to nonchalantly carry any object as brightly pink as this, I can assure you. Must confess that I did have a weak moment when I felt compelled to explain to an exec. type who had a puzzled look on his face as I pulled out the object in question from the cabin baggage hold above his head, that it was for my wife. "Yeah right" was his retort.