In the past few days, these conversations have taken place at Chez Attinson:

We’re watching “Jeopardy” and one of the questions refers to a “Berkshire Hathaway” as if it were a geographic feature. I turn to Neal and ask, seriously, “What’s a ‘Hathaway’?” and he responds, laughing, “Oh about 4 or 5 pounds!” I fall off the couch laughing.

We’re watching a “Star Trek” re-run and one of the red-shirt actors is just awful, awful. Neal, knowing I love theatre, asks me how I would ‘fix’ him and make him a better performer if I were in charge. “Seriously,” he asks me, “what would you say to him if you were the Director?”
I replied, “I’d say, ‘Son….’” and waited for Neal to get it. It took him a second, then he fell off the couch laughing.

We were in the kitchen just now, rinsing dishes, and Neal asked me if I’d heard the news story about the “naughty octopus,” and then goes on to tell me that an octopus in some aquarium somewhere turned on all the water and flooded the joint. Expressing amazement, I asked, “How?!” Neal said, “I don’t know, I think he turned a valve.” I replied, “Well if it was an aquarium it must have been a bi-valve.” He didn’t fall off the couch because we were in the kitchen, but hilarity did ensue.