Meeting new people isn't one of my strengths, but I invited
a woman who was leaving a book party at the same time I was and who was headed
back home on the same train and got off at the same stop to a cooking thing at
my apt three nights later. At my get together she used "retarded"
twice and I don't even remember the context. It was good to hear. No one else noticed,
likely because the youngest woman in attendance is on the verge of 39. The
newcomer had turned 40 the week before.
"Grandma, you can't say that!" the grandchildren
of the future will chide, embarassed to the core.