The party's over

My husband and I noticed a few years ago that when you are at a dinner party in Manhattan, one of the first things everyone talks about is real estate. But when people run out of things to talk about, they start talking about where they were on 9/11.

And we decided that when that happens, the party's over.

It's really astonishing how often this happens. I suppose it is a symptom of a really pervasive problem, that we were all so deeply scarred by the events of this day that whenever we are given a chance to just empty our minds, it all comes down to that: Where we were on Sept. 11th, 2001.

For the most part, these stories are banal, and I include my own stories in that category. Unless you lost someone that day, what is there to say, really? And not surprisingly, I have found that the people who lost someone that day never want to talk about it.

So tonight we were eating dinner at someone's house and a 9/11 story did get told. After a few minutes, I realized that I didn't want to leave yet, but I couldn't stop thinking, "The party's over! Someone's telling a 9/11 story!"

So I did what might have been a rude thing, but I couldn't help it. I explained our little rule and asked the person to stop telling the story. It worked, seemed fine, we moved the conversation along, and stayed for another half-hour. Person who was telling the story, please forgive me if you're reading this! I just couldn't help it!