Boomerang arrow

Maryl, JY, Gary and Muggs were over for drinks Thursday before dinner at Louie's, and I don't remember which one of them associated Valentine's Day with its initials. . . .

Which spun me back those many years to my early days on the editorial page, where I'd been brought in to add a bit of sauce to the ink. And in my bad-boy way, I proposed a ValDay editorial based on VD awareness. Brilliant, they said, so I did my reporting on STD rates, VD hotline numbers, condom use (this was waay before safe-sex campaigns) and even tracked down the head of the board of health, Dr. Eric Oldberg, for a pithy quote.

The good doctor, a society gynecologist, had received his appointment because one of his more prominent patients was Sis Daley, the mayor's wife, and I had to track him down at his home in Lake Forest for the quote. But I got it, put it in the editorial and smiled smugly at my thoroughness and wit.

Which was shot full of arrows the next morning. Dr. Oldberg called, not to congratulate me but to point out that the number I'd printed for the VD hotline was his home number, and Mrs. Oldberg was taking phone calls that started with "I've got this discharge. . . ."

Another paver on the road to hell, but it does get a laugh at a cocktail party.