Spinal Tap Moments

Bear with me here - I know Spinal Tap has many moments.

I refer to this one.

Tap and their manager, Ian, were stuck outside a hotel when Duke Fame and his agent, played by Howard Hessman, walks by. Tap tries to chat with them, and the greasy agent can't hide his disdain - even though Fame opened for Tap when he was starting out.

Finally, Hessman pulls ranks and drops this chestnut before walking away:
"Listen we'd love to stand around and chat, but we gotta sit down in the lobby and wait for the limo."

It might be one of the best movie blowoffs ever and like so many moments in Tap, it breezes by before it really registers.

So anytime someone gives me a brush-off that sounds gentle and first but becomes harsher the more you think about it, that's a "Spinal Tap moment. "

A P.R. told me that her client "would be passing on the opportunity for an interview" - same thing, different context. Media relations types excel at using soft language to fend off reporter types.

The phrase popped into my head at a wedding last year. Someone I had met at the previous night's rehearsal dinner and had a good conversation with walked by and then sat down with about 10 minutes prior to the ceremony. After three or four minutes, this woman gave an approximation of the Hessman line and moved up all of three rows. A pure Spinal Tap moment.

"Fuck you" might be considered rude, but at least it's succinct.