Why didn't I think of that

 

 I came across that picture mucking around the other day in a storage space in the cabin. It's a mock front page of the Anchorage Daily News the last night I worked there the first time around. It's a tradition in the news business that has now probably gone away under the weight of the internet.
     It brought up a memory of a more recent encounter. A few years ago I went to a Christmas party put on by a friend in my most recent and last tour at good old ADN.
     Over the course of the evening I was introduced to a guy about half my age who had recently left the paper for another job. When it came out that I was at that time editing the paper's web page he looked me over and then without the hint of humor, he said, "I would have been your boss."
     I immediately had one of those introvert moments. How could somebody say that, and why? I just stared silently until I finally mumbled something about nothing and then someone interrupted and they went on to talking about something else while I wandered aimlessly looking for some place to get away by myself.
     The next day, of course, the reponse came to me. How do you think this would have gone over?
Something like, "Really? Wow, and 30 years ago I would have been your boss. Oh wait, were you out of elementary school yet?' Only a day and then about five years too late.