Incognito

Ann Curtis pounded the pronunciation into our heads. It's inCOGnito, she told us. Ann Curtis was the perennial speech and English teacher in junior high. She seemed perennial anyway; in our young minds, she'd been there forever.

If Ann Curtis told you something was to be done a certain way, you performed according to her wishes. If you didn't, she would gasp out loud or give you a dose of that death-defying hate stare of hers. Every student who ever went through her ninth-grade English class remembers his diagramming. I guarantee you.

Please note that I just used the masculine pronoun in honor of Ann.

She retired long before the big and still murky debate arose on whether to use "his or her," "he/she" or "hrs." I made that last one up cuz I thought it would solve a big problem.

Anyway, back to Ann. Every student who ever went through her speech class learned Miss Curtis' "inCOGnito" pronunciation, but I must say---even nearly 50 years later, it's hard to spit out that pronunciation in a crowd cuz ya know folks are gonna look at you and spit out, "Say what?"

Still, the meaning of the word is fairly universal, and I couldn't help but think of Ann this morning when I read yet another story about the South Carolina governor who "went missing." (Ann would cringe at that one, just like I do. I wonder how you diagram it).

Now they're saying that the governor flew to Argentina for an exotic vacation rather than the aforementioned alleged hike on the Appalachian Trail. He wasn't supposed to do either----without telling someone, that is.

Therein lies his sin.

The world was supposed to know where a governor---who had had it up to here and wanted to get away where nobody knew him---went to sort out his mind. It's turned into a semi-scandal, especially now that he really went to Argentina rather than hiking, which was first reported when everyone in the world (well, maybe a few people of the opposite party in South Carolina) suddenly wanted to know where the governor was.

I know I'm wrong, but I think this story ranks right up there with the fly-swatting incident that took the big headlines last week. Doesn't any human being---especially those in the public spotlight---have the right any more to steal a few private moments away from the day-to-day boiling pot?

I think it was nice the governor could go to Argentina to get away from it all and to live a few hours of being inCOGnito. Did the world stop spinning because of his absence? I don't think so. Did South Carolina fall off into the Atlantic Ocean? Nope.

The guy needed a break. Give him that. And, while doing so, mind your own business about business that is really earth shattering.

Nobody complains when Presidents disappear from the proposed travel itinerary and suddenly show up at a Thanksgiving dinner for soldiers in Iraq. Why should it be such a big deal where a governor goes for temporary inGOGnitability?

If this had not turned into a big news event, he probably would have returned to South Carolina, refreshed and re-energized to take on the next set of governing problems. Now that the media and the gossip mongers have grabbed the story, however, the poor guy's gonna never get to take a break again until he gets voted out of office for visiting a country that might cry for him.

Last weekend I was sitting on a sidewalk curb in Seattle watching the crazy and wacky Fremont Fair Parade. There were tons of people there but not one soul I knew except for my daughter and her friends. It was nice.

It was especially nice when the parade noise was suddenly overtaken by the loud and somewhat obnoxious voice of some guy behind us talking on his cell phone, giving play-by-play coverage of the parade to someone who had apparently not attended a parade of such magnitude.

As he droned on, loudly, our attention turned to the rear. I never did see the guy, but I saw his wife looking around like she'd like to become inCOGnito. Then, I couldn't resist. I yelled back his direction, "Do you have any more to add? Can we comment?"

Shortly thereafter, I heard my daughter say to one of her friends who had gotten a chuckle out of my intervention with said cell phone addict, "Well, at least she can go home." She was referring to the fact that nobody knew me in that crowd, and I could get away with my commentary of the commentator.

It was kind of fun. Yup, rather than the usual familiarity, I was just an anonymous voice in the crowd, and it provided a nice break from the usual, when you live in a small town where "everyone knows your name."

So, I believe in people getting to go inCOGnito or to "go missing," whether it's to Seattle or up the Appalachian Trail or to Argentina. Everyone needs a breather. Let's grant the South Carolina governor his and get on with the important matters of the world, like fly swatters.

And, I'm sure this morning that Ann Curtis would be proud of me cuz I said it right all through the post.

Update: Oops, silly me. The third story about the governor has now made new and different headlines, and I learn that my assumptions were much too innocent. Seems he had good reason to divert attention as to his whereabouts. Now we know THE REST OF THE STORY.