The Naked Men Converse on Worldly Topics at the Y

Saturday afternoon at the office, and once again I’m here. I can’t stay away from this place, what with so many things to worry about, get done, and piles of papers to file or throw away. I managed to get a good workout in, early up at the Greenfield Y. There I thought about this funny thing that happens quite often in their locker room.

Two men discuss worldly subjects while walking around nude. They talk about these professorial topics, one older gent dispensing his wisdom and the younger naked dude taking it all in, nodding professorially in agreement. The topics are so big, they talk about stuff that you might discuss in a classroom, but it’s all going on while other people are changing and walking in and out of the locker room.

I thought about that wonderful comic called Stan Mack’s Real Life funnies (see picture) that used to run in the old Village Voice. There, Mack would put verbatim conversational snips into a comic strip. He’d use the real words and it always cracked me up. These two profs and their high minded conceptual discussions while changing strike the same chord in me.