Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Email | RSS | More
The SECRET WORD Kamala Harris used to flip Joe Biden ■ The words other people use to try to control you ■ Why are you at a disadvantage during any dialog with a large corporation or the government? ■ Ways customer service people can screw you ■ 2 types of customer service people – how to ID them and deal with them ■
The French have a phrase: L’esprit de l’escalier, and the literal translation is something like, “I said it on the staircase” – in other words, your snappy retort or withering comeback to some verbal assault was expressed to the banister on that staircase, rather than the face of the douche bag who just insulted you.
We’ve all experienced that. And the smug prick who just sucker-punched you is feeling quite pleased with him or herself. But they should not be. Because 9 out of 10 times, their zing to you was premeditated – often rehearsed – maybe for days or week in advance, and your answer was a true ad lib. Which may be why fuck you is the great all-purpose retort.
When you research many of the world’s most beloved comebacks, quite often they were never said, or were muttered on that staircase or maybe even weeks later and time zones away from the scene of the bushwhacking.
What made me decide to explore Verbal Judo was a two things – a contentious call with a receptionist at Moose’s veterinary clinic (Moose is the official and epilepsy-afflicted guard dog of the Take No Shit Dojo.) The other impetus was the now famous – at least until next debate – sand bagging of Hairplug Joe Biden by the razor-toothed California senator, Kamala Harris.
As a kid in Queens NY, I participated in many, many rock fights. Yes, you read that correctly – rock fights. The streets were a mess then, so potholes in the crumbling asphalt supplied endless ammo. In winter we had to use snowballs. If we were smart in autumn, we’d squirrel away some rocks to pack inside the snowballs.
One of the oldest tricks was throwing – from some distance – a high, arcing rock – and while the target is watching that projectile, you fire a second, line drive stone at him that he never sees coming. Was there blood? Sometimes. They were rocks, not spitballs. But no one ever really got mad. It was a game. Nobody forced anyone to participate. If you got hurt, too bad.
That rock fight fake-out is exactly what Harris did to Biden. Maybe it should be called the Reverse Marc Antony play. “I come not to praise Caesar, but to bury him.” She started off by proclaiming Biden was not a racist. She even complimented him. He smiled warmly in her direction. And then she proceeded to fire the torpedo, telling Biden why he was indeed a racist, and a “hurtful” one at that.
The look on Biden’s face as he realized he had been sandbagged was priceless.
Within a week, Biden was defending her from somebody else’s accusations. Politics makes strange bedfellows. Maybe old Joe is hot for her and has a kinky streak. Please ma’am, may I have another?
99% of politicians – regardless of party – are horrible people. Devoid of talent, all they can do is take bows for things they never achieved and promise to do things they have no intention of accomplishing. Somebody said, anyone who seeks power should never be given it. Truer words…
If you’re breathing, you’ve probably heard dozens of talking heads analyze the Biden – Harris exchange. But I suspect (hope) no one has done so as I have. This election cycle is going to be a hoot. And now that early on the bar has been set at the level of trench warfare, look forward to lots more eye-gouges, kidney punches and low blows. It’s gonna be FUN!
Email Larry: thatlarryshow@gmail.com
Call the TNS Dojo
But mine had a string tied to the stick – kind of an important detail.
