Late one evening right after work. Stopped by the grocery store for a bit of shopping. Hurriedly cruised through the aisles grabbing what I needed and didn't and approached the "express" register. Plucked a little plastic divider from the side, plonked it down on the conveyer belt to separate from the neat stash of the guy in front of me, and began loading up my selection. Which was, exactly: a bottle of Australian wine (red); two boxes of whole-grain crispbreads; a box of Brie; two pomegranates; some chestnuts; a bag of seeded red grapes; and red pepper hummus, party-size. The guy in front of me glanced at my stash; and visibly out of the corner of my eye I could see him looking at it, sizing it up, assessing it and me. Which is fine: I do it too. Nothing talks like your selection in the grocery store. Try it sometime. You'll be amazed at what you can learn about your fellow shoppers from what is loaded in their carts and stacked onto their cash register belts.
Finally he broke the silence. "You've got great appetizers," he said.
"Thanks," I said. What else would you say?
"No, I mean it," he said. "Compared to me, I mean." He pointed apologetically. "Beer and ice cream." He was right. Besides that, a papaya and two unidentified red fruits in a bag.
"I know a lot of guys who would think that your snacks were better than mine," I said. He laughed. A few minutes later, rather embarrassedly: "I didn't mean to be noticing your food." But of course he did. "That's all right," I said. "I think you can learn a lot about people by what they buy." He agreed, and thus ended a rather surreal but funny encounter. Human beings are so endearingly odd. I love it when you unexpectedly get a glimpse of the inner world of one when their social barriers drop.
And I'll always remember that I've got great appetizers.