Hello, Monkey?

We spent some time last night with some friends and their two-and-a-half year old son. During the course of the evening, I discovered that A. has a spectacular ability to conduct imaginary telephone conversations on demand. The small child was going around the room with his toy phone, handing it off to all the adults so we could talk to the mysterious Monkey. The one-sided conversations were predictably short and not particularly inspired, until A. got on the phone with Monkey. He started right in about how Monkey was supposed to deliver an order of bananas but the truck hadn't arrived yet. You would seriously have thought he was actually talking to a guy named Monkey with a truck full of bananas. It was oddly impressive, as well as being, of course, absolutely hilarious.

I shouldn't be surprised, though. This is a man who can give the most convincing off-the-cuff televangelist impersonation you've ever seen. I have never met anyone as verbally glib on the spur of the moment. If he had the right temperament, he would have made a very skillful politician. But personally, I think his skills are best used by talking to Monkey on a child's phone and making people laugh. That's more than most politicians can claim.