So today I went to a sales rep presentation by an unnamed furniture company in West Michigan for laboratory benches and furniture. About 20 minutes into his powerpoint presentation, he elected to use a quote from some general I had never heard of but he prefaced it with, "Now, not that I'm into the whole 'war' thing, but..." The quote really had nothing to do with war or battle or fighting or world domination, but after he said it, he again said, "But I'm not into the 'war' thing." I found this to be rather perplexing. Why would he say this? And what did he mean by it? What is he "not into", exactly? The war in Iraq? War, in general? And what does he mean when he says he's "not into" it? Is he against it? Or not against it, just not a fan? Or is this just a wimpy way of saying he's anti-war? And why say it at all....twice? Did he think we were a rabid anti-war crowd that would string him up out in Diamond Square if he expressed respect for a general? As you can see, I spent the rest of hour zoned out and contemplating this rather inconsequential issue and didn't hear another word the guy had to say.

Sales representatives are a curious thing, though. You'd expect them to be rather proper and PC since they're trying to sell something and wouldn't want to take the risk of offending someone. Maybe it's just the geographic location, but I find that's often not the case. I expect it somewhat with engineering reps because the field is well-populated with "good ol' boys" types. (I nearly laughed out loud when a straight-faced rep once claimed his control system could hold a temperature "dead to nuts".) But I've also encountered it with your more artsy-fartsy architectural products reps. I was completely shocked when a landscape lighting sales rep made a comment about Mexican migrant workers installing his project.

Now I'm not offended by any of this. I'm just wondering what's running through people's heads when they say this stuff to a room full of people they don't know. Then again, people probably wonder the same thing about me. I've said some pretty crazy things myself.