A Little Too Much Bogarting Mon. Apr 23rd, 07

I’ve been tempting fate quite a bit in that past few months. I’ve had dashes of hubris and gotten away with it, somewhat. And lately I’ve consistently been in a bogart kind of mood. Rodney told me ages ago that one of the original meanings of bogart is to strong arm, or intimidate—and this makes perfect sense after watching The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep. And I’ve got a feeling that my bogarting is going to get me into trouble.
Here’s a little example of how I’ve blurred the boundaries of “acceptable behavior.”

Just last night I got pulled over by a cop. Well, I didn’t quite get pulled over. I had just pulled into my driveway and a cop drove up. I had seen him behind me and figured he was a bit bored. I got out of my van began to walk to my apartment. And he quickly walked over and to me asked if I would show him my license. I replied in tone of calm impatience & brutality, “Well, no. I’d rather not. I’ve got to get up early and need to get to bed.” Although it was dark out, I could tell he was visibly shocked. His eyes opened wide, and his draw dropped. After a moment, he said, “It’ll only take a moment, sir.” I replied, continuing in my calm yet brutal tone, with “It might, but, seeing that I don’t even have to show it to you since I’m already in my driveway, I’d rather just go inside and go to bed.” He fumbled around for something to say while continued to look him straight in the eye as if I were consuming him in flames. Then, I suddenly realized I was being an idiot, and that I was lucky he couldn’t decide how to deal with me—I think my demeanor took him by surprise. So I changed my tone and gently said, “Alright, here you go.” And a few minutes later he was gone.

I know I’m something of a fool, but not such a fool to fail to realize that I can’t get away with this forever. I mean, the fates do conspire against us.
Rodney seemed to have a touch of bogart in his behavior when the dude cut in line, has anyone else been behaving like this?

technorati tags:bogart, bogarting, hubris

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