kicking puppies is bad

A while ago I was having a conversation with a friend. At some point he said, “It’s like the definition of feltching. It’s one of those things that you think you want to know. But then you find out. And you really wish you didn’t know, but it is too late.” When he said that to me, I didn’t know what feltching was. I am a naturally inquisitive person, and I *really* wanted to ask. I didn’t ask because (given the context) I probably didn’t *really* want to know. And I was mostly proud of my self restraint.

Unfortunately this particular friend used this example fairly regularly. And each time he did I really wanted to ask what feltching meant (or go home and look up the meaning). But I didn’t. Eventually, I went to see ‘The Aristocrats‘ (not a good date movie). I don’t actually remember if they defined feltching in the movie, or if they just mentioned it and someone else in my group of friends asked what it meant. But at some point that evening someone defined felching. And now I know what it means. And in some ways it was a let down. I have a fairly active imagination, and I had imagined something much worse.

This past weekend I was visiting San Francisco. And I encountered this friend again. We were at a penta-birthday / Halloween costume party. The party was winding down and we were talking about all sorts of random things. To the best of my knowledge the conversation was not particularly weird, and my thoughts were not particularly weird. But later he said, “I always wanted to know what went on in your head, but its kind of like the definition of feltching. You think you want to know, but then once you find out, you really wish you didn’t know.”

So there it is. The things in my head are like feltching. You really don’t want to know.