A Wrinkle in Time

I like the elderly. I mean, we all have our good days and our bad days, but generally, they're a funny people and more so because they don't mean to be.

I had just seen the movie "For Your Consideration" (it was good, by the way, no "Best in Show," but certainly no "Employee of the Month" either. Not that I saw that movie, I'm just saying. ) and went to the theater bathroom. There were four stalls and I saw an older woman go in the stall next to me.

All of a sudden I hear a voice. An old Brooklyn-sounding voice ask, "So what did you think of the movie?"

In response, the older woman who had uttered it got silence, because we were all, well, going to the bathroom. And it's easy to ignore someone when you can't actually see them. And we didn't know each other.

"Fine, don't answer me then,” she said, with a harrumph.

"Ah, well, what movie did you see?" the stall next to me volunteered.

"'For Your Consideration' and I just didn't get it," she said with disgust.

"Well, I thought it was a great movie about the corruption of Hollywood," the stall replied.

"I guess," old Brooklyn answered.

"Really?" ventured the last stall. "I felt it had a dark, sarcastic humor, but truly, the level of tender, ruthless, inspired, lethally accurate study that has gone into the follicular expression of each and every character in Christopher Guest's latest hilarious cultural corrective is something inspiring to behold."

"Sp0ak up. I didn't catch all of it," our moderator said.

"Ah . . . why don't we all just meet in the handicapped stall and discuss this face-to-face?" I ventured. This suggestion was of course, also greeted with silence.

After our little pow wow we all came out of our respective stalls and washed our hands, and it was awkward.

I felt like I gained a lot from the conversation, though. We discussed the nuances of Hollywood, the price of fame, and so much more. But most of all, I went in having to urinate, and came out realizing that stalls should be soundproof. And I owe it all to that older woman who wasn’t afraid to speak out.