Open Mouth Insert Foot

206 words



         Working through lunchtime one day, when I was clerking for the Supervising Department of the Superior Court in Vista California, was bizarre.  Normally, either Karen or I would lock the courtroom door at noon and reopen it after lunch. But this one time, we neglected to lock it.

          I worked through my lunch hour to get caught up with nagging paperwork piling up in my InBox.  I picked up a Substitution of Attorney filed by counsel who withdrew from representing a client and replaced with a new counsel of record. The new name I substituted in place of the former attorney hit me as odd. It reminded me of medieval England; of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and those legends that I loved reading in the primary and elementary grades. I couldn’t resist making an offhand comment, “What mother on earth would be in her right mind to name her son “Thor Emblem?”

          As I was talking, the door opened and in comes this attorney announcing, “That’s me!”  Karen and I looked at each other motionless and speechless. What chance does one have to be so lucky like me to be caught with my foot in my mouth?