Classic Blunders

In The Princess Bride, Wallace Shawn's character tells Cary Elwes:

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia.' But only slightly less well known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"

Then he laughs his head off until he drops dead of the poison that he thinks he's just tricked Elwes into swallowing.

The point, aside from how thinking about Wallace Shawn usually makes me smile, is that I keep thinking of the most famous classic blunder in the same breath as yet another, only slightly less well-known blunder, which is this: 'Never get involved in a bi-coastal long-distance relationship.'

And then I think of Stephen Merritt's voice in the song "A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off," where he says, "it ain't pretty."

Sigh.

I feel a little sad today, you know.

Yesterday it was all sniffing-back-tears all day in front of my computer screen, in plain view of all the interns. Today it's staying in my pajamas till 4pm and diving nosefirst into some coding work that drives the time away like dust before a broom. I can tell it's not gone, though. It's just waiting for a lull, for the next time I have to slow down.