Small Talk

crimes and misdemeanors . 119
is the captain of the baseball team, and pro scouts are recruiting
the boy. He’ll spare you no details. Perhaps he
just bought a top-of-the-line gizmo. He can’t imagine
why everyone else doesn’t do the same. He always has an
“I’m king of the world” story to tell.
The braggart’s sister, Braggarita, is equally lethal, although
she prefers single encounters with people she
knows. She usually prefers to do her boasting in a more
personal way. She tends to speak conspiratorially to
members of her inner circle. She leaves it to them to
spread the word of Braggarita’s greatness to unknown
parties. Braggarita never directly discloses her greatness
to strangers. She lets them find out from her coterie of
confidantes who are charged with telling others. While
strangers are not required to bow to Braggarita, it is expected
that they will be suitably impressed.
She will very quietly tell her inner circle about her
new designer kitchen and how much it cost. She’ll tell
them about a smashing vacation on the French Riviera
that everyone else must take. In fact, she’ll give you the
name of her travel agent just so you can replicate the trip.
The only hope of stopping a small talk murder orchestrated
by the braggart and Braggarita is to bring the
conversation back to more general topics, such as current