Jenny offers a list of interesting small talk questions on her blog today, so I spent a little time on the web looking for advice about small talk. Came across the following year-old piece from the Cincinnati Enquirer, which contains this:
The trick, say experts and singles, is what you do when you get there. The first skill that a single people needs to learn is how to make small talk.
Yeah. Shouldn't that be "a single people need to learns are how to maked small talk"? No. Stop. Must ... resist ... stereotype ... of ... English ... teachers ... as ... grammar ... nerds ... but ... can't ... Apparently, grammar isn't the first skill a writer needs to learn to write for the Enquirer.
You see, that's the problem. If only "small mock" were the key to meeting people...then I wouldn't need to spend my Friday nights reading weblogs. Unfortunately, according to Pepper Schwartz,
If you're acting out of anger, if you have self-esteem issues, get that part of you together before you go out to meet anybody else. You need to get a personal insight before you go wholeheartedly into dating anyone.
I guess I need to get a personal insight. Damn. Here's mine: the whole thing about small talk is that it's mindless. The idea of buying books to learn about it can only make those of us who suck at it think about it even more. Making us, of course, even worse. If only there were some way to make all the people who are good at small talk read those books, then we could all meet on a level playing field of awkward insecurity...sigh...
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