Curb Your Enthusiasm

 The other day, I went to see a show on Broadway that was not for children. The show's website said, "This is not for children." I paid a fair amount for my ticket, and I also paid for sitter coverage; this was not a small expenditure.

When seated, I discovered that a tiny child was directly in front of me. She bounced around in her seat, "conducted" alongside the orchestra, and asked many questions of her mother, who happily engaged her in chit chat. 

Note: Everything is on a spectrum. This kid wasn't whining, wasn't asking to leave the theater; it was clear that most of her conversation was growing out of a genuine sense of curiosity, regarding the plot. She had trouble following the plot--because it was complicated, it continued to unspool itself in a second, and even a third, hour, and it was not designed for children.

I did "shush" once during Act One, and the mom seemed to realize that she'd made at least one substantial error (i.e. bringing a child to a show for adults). During intermission, I asked various ushers if I could change my seat--and each one passed me on to a subsequent usher, who then halfheartedly murmured about a possible subsequent usher, until I gave up. During the Second Act, I tried a second shush, and I was given an "evil eye" retaliatory "glare," which really took my breath away. I think I'm happy that I tried to fight back? End of story.

For this reason, I'm relieved to have Larry David. In a recent episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," David performs cunnilingus on a new crush. He has closed his bedroom door--but his cleaning person emerges without having knocked first. David has done nothing wrong; indeed, the cleaning person *has* done something wrong. But the cleaning person finesses the story to turn herself into a victim, and eventually she says she cannot wash any towels (I guess because a towel evokes thoughts of the master bedroom/bathroom, which evokes thoughts of sex, etc.) 

David and the cleaning person are locked in an impossible situation; both need their professional arrangement, but the arrangement no longer works. Nothing is resolved; the problem gets increasingly ugly, until it results in David's public (and maybe global?) humiliation.

Sometimes, you are just "well and truly" fucked.

It helps me to see this scenario on a screen.