"Oh yeah?" I said. This is my capable of both believing and appreciating anything anyone on the road and/or in transit with something particularly weird and/or great to tell someone voice. (a skill that allows me to live many lives vicariously).
"Ohhh, Yeah!" Matt returns. (this is how those who have a story to tell are wont to respond).
(me) "What, happened?"
(Matty) "Bill Clinton drew me!".
"Wha-at?!" (me, with sudden picture of skinny Bill Clinton popping in my head and how it is he looks neither healthy nor right with his cheek bones sticking out all over the place).
"Bill Clinton?!" I repeated. "For Real? How did that happen?" (and now I'm envisioning skinny Bill at a Borders Books and my brother Matthew's name drawn out of a hat. Matthew's name was drawn by Bill Clinton and so he got to ask some town square type question- likely inspired by Noam Chomsky. Beside myself, Matty is the only other registered democrat in our family. Noam Chomsky was his inspiration- (linguist/historian) it's been an awkward, slow go, but Matthew really likes words.
Matty, "murmur, static, excitement . . . blah, blah and then Bill Clinton drew me!"
And now it's clear that Bill Clinton met my brother while holding a sketch pad and was inspired in some whimsical way to sketch my brother's portrait. (and a vision of Bill Clinton playing the saxophone comes to me . . . hmmm, I had no idea he liked to draw, too. I've been irrationally intrigued/irritated by his old-statesman type coziness with George Bush I, but lookit here, he's more complex than I'd ever imagined. Bill Clinton, a frustrated artist, too?).
Did you say BILL CLINTON? I shout over the highway noise. BILL CLINTON . . . DREW YOU?
Matthew laughs and says "no!!! It was murmur static PLYMPTON!"
And I flash on George Plimpton who I know nothing about except that he's Martha's dad or grandpa or some such thing about then I realize I'm not getting it, I've missing something important and so ask again loud and careful . . . WHERE ARE YOU? . . . WHAT'S HAPPENED?
Matthew had been in Wilmington, NC and had been drawn by his and your favorite cult cartoonist Bill Plympton I know just enough about this guy (through Matthew) to be excited for Matty.
Yay! Matthew!
After the hilarity of the Bill Clinton/Plympton mix up, come to find out while Matthew was visiting friends he was bitten by a dog.
It was one of those petting the cruelly abused, heroically rescued pet of an old college pal. He was gently petting doggy while talking to a friend and the dog flipped into crazed, damaged-goods, rescue pet mode and sunk its teeth into Matthew's hand.
"And then what"? I asked him.
"And then it just looked at me like, 'what'? and I really wanted to punch it, but I didn't because it's been abused and then Ben got it by the collar and drug it into the other room and told me 'just send me the doctor's bill".
"How'd George . . . no, who is it? Bill . . . Plympton end up sketching you?"
"Because I knew the name of the first cartoon he'd ever drawn. He put the question to the audience and I knew the answer."
"Cool! And you're going to the doctor tomorrow, right? How deep is that puncture wound?"
Later the next day I got to say to Matthew "deep tissue damage"- (as in, that's probably why they want to take x-rays- to rule out a possible abscess).
The words "Possible Abscess" and "deep tissue damage" came out of my mouth just a bit too pleased and self congratulatory.
Ick. Sorry.
In case you're interested, my brother Matt and his friends have this cool-o little movie production thing they do.
They've participated in a contest called "One Take Movie Festival" (where movie kids show up and undertake the challenge of creating a movie in 24 hours).
Matty and friends have Placed several years in a row. The company is called "And The Moon Goes" It's weird seeing my brother perform. It's hard to be objective, but I think he's sweetly amazing.
