Table Mates

Piled Higher and Deeper is an acrimonious, snide, “inside baseball” sarcasm directed to the high scholarship and intellectual accomplishment made manifest in the Ph.D. degree that compels the honorific “Dr” to be spoken or written preceding the name.


There are two Ph.D.s both former professors. who sit at the same table in the dining room of my ALF.

I’m one of them. I’m Richard, although I’m known to friends – and to those who read my blogs - as Dick. My table mate, also is named Richard, but he’s known as Ritchie. You could say we were the two -- well, maybe you better not say that. Maybe Richard² would be more family-oriented.



Anyhow, we both were professors at a nearby university. Ritchie professed Mathematics, while I taught Media Communication and Media Arts. Of course, one could say mathematics is an art. And, at its essence, mathematics is a medium of communication; ergo, there’s no right brain/left brain fight at our table – but Ritchie knows all the answers to the weekly dining room game of Trivia., and could instantly be a Jeopardywinner. Artist as I am, I suck at facts, although I’m creative enough to produce alternative facts when needed.



We’re un-twin like in physical appearance. Ritchie is a bear of a man, weighing almost twice as much as me: I’m a twerp; moreover, I’m disabled and waddle in a wheelchair, Ritchie wanders with a walker.


We’re alike in other respects, as well: he’s eighty-seven; I make that in a month. My apartment is directly beneath his. Neither of us watch TV, except for the PBS News Hour. I watch movies, he YouTubes.


Both of us have nasal cavity capillaries which are antiques and exacerbate the flow of mucus so that our noses drip while we eat. We’re both widowers. Our wives were both named Virginia and both had Alzheimer’s. We both grouse and often declare events Humbug!


But deep down we’re kindly old men – sharing the same box of Crayolas.

Dick Weinmann is an AARP and our ALF (Assisted Living Facility) Guru