In which Sly cannot praise the hamburgers that Primo grilled for him but must compete instead

Primo called me.

"I made dinner for my mom and dad. I got some really good beef - Strauss - and I grilled hamburgers. They were really good."

"I'm sure. You make good hamburgers."

"My dad --"

"What did he say?"

"He said these were OK, but his hamburgers are more rare."

"And I guess that means his are better?"

"Yes. As if that's a statement that his hamburgers are better. Now he makes his in a skillet and I grill m--"

"That's not even the point! The point is not whose hamburgers are better. It's that he couldn't even say one nice thing about you - that it had to be about him. That he has to compete with his own son."

"Yes. The point with him is that he is superior."

In which Sly informs Primo that their social life would not improve in a retirement community because people find Sly and Doris "intimidating"

Primo brought up to his dad that he thought Doris might be happier in a retirement community.

"She could meet people for coffee, she could play cards, she could be in a book club," he said to Sly.

Sly shook his head. "Your mother and I intimidate people."

When Primo told me this story, I said, "It's a good thing we don't know any smart people. Or we might be really intimidated."

Primo agreed. "Our friends must all be not smart. Otherwise, we would not want to be friends with them."

"And we must not be smart, either, or nobody would want to be friends with us."

We are very lucky that we are not smart and our friends are not smart. We would be lonely indeed if there were nothing but intimidating people around us.