One evening in Specs, the guy sitting beside me started up a conversation about Martin Scorsesi's film Goodfellas. We really liked Joe Pesci's performance and both agreed that he had done a great job of portraying a perfect asshole. In fact, we agreed, all the male leads in the film had been excellent portrayals of complete assholes.
Finally, the eighty-year old gentleman sitting on the other side of me tapped me on the arm and said, "I notice that the two of you keep using the term `asshole'."
I thought that he was about to reproach us for our language, and was wondering what sort of response I would make to this reprimand. But instead, he went on, "I wonder if you're aware that that term actually goes back to Martin Luther," and then proceded to quote the relevant citation from Luther's work.
I thought to myself, "Only in San Francisco ...."
March, 1996