Blogcoven

I knew it was a mistake when I said it, and I immediately wished I could have said “No, go back, switch that, I don’t want to be contacted by any of your reporters for a quote.” I was somewhat pleased about being involved in the phone poll the LA Times was conducting, and it was no doubt the swell of civic pride that I might be doing something to encourage politicians to actually get something right that caused me to say, “Yeah, sure, go ahead.” Despite knowing full well that any encounter with a reporter will probably go badly, and I have a good portfolio of small-risk yet high-embarrassment examples to back up this opinion.

The reason people say “pride goeth before a fall” is because pride (and a few other select emotions) clouds one’s mind so that intelligent, rational decisions become impossible. This is why if you want to encourage someone to do something stupid, you flatter them. In this case, I had managed to convince myself that I was savvy enough to offer an opinion (note how I confuse “opinion” and “quote” in the cloud of pride) to someone who talks about politics for a living.

A couple weeks after the poll I got a phone call from a man who identified himself as a political columnist from the LA Times. My mind went blank. He asked me why I hadn’t registered with a party, which primary I was likely to vote in (California is having an election for governor this year), and what it would take for me to sign up with a party. I couldn’t come up with an answer that sounded good, other than that I wasn’t inspired by any of the current choices.

In retrospect I should have said something really smart, like “Supporting a third party in this country is practically useless, unless you prefer being ruled by the guys from the other end of the political spectrum. Supporting either of the two main parties is ridiculous because their policies are so similar. The only differences are on relatively irrelevant hot-button issues, and even then you won’t get a lot of consistency within a party.” Which is the real reason I registered “Independent.” Instead, I apparently said:

“I haven’t found a party that engenders great loyalty.”

I said engenders?

Knowing me, it’s completely plausible. The more nervous I get, the more expensive my word choice is. I probably meant to say “inspires.” I certainly should have said “inspires.” I’d like to believe I said “inspires,” but the guy transcribed it incorrectly. Unfortunately, what I remember about that quote was that I was looking at the opposite side of the room at the living room window, at the closed curtain, and reflecting that the late afternoon light filtering through was rather yellow and ugly. I do not remember which word I used. It was probably the dumb one.

The moral of the story? Don’t talk to the media.