Beta flight, alpha male

Hot on the heels of Mike's recent statement that I'm an alpha male, I got the following comment from Sascha from fencing yesterday: "You often can have a very commanding physical presence." I was surprised to hear that one, but now I have an idea what she might have meant.

Tonight at fencing, these two healthy-sized teenagers named Peter and Mikey were fooling around. They always fool around. They talk to each other constantly, ignoring whatever instruction is being given, which gets on my nerves because it shows a lack of respect to the coaches. I keep track of the attendance, and I write them down as one name -- Peterandmikey -- because they're inseparable and worth about as much as one person when put together.

Today they had found a balloon and were batting it around with their foils, waving them all over the place, and if not actually endangering people around them, at least taking up valuable space. I watched this for quite a while, then finally said to Sascha, "I've had about enough of that." I walked over to them, and took the balloon away with the tip of my foil. They shrank back and let me have it. I pinned it to the floor with my foil's tip as though I were going to pop it. They cringed and covered their ears. Then I picked it up and put it away. They made no attempt to argue.

"This is what I was talking about," Sascha said afterward. "That was hilarious."