I was the one who was keen on meeting my girlfriend's parents.  But I was surprised when entering the house I heard my future mother-in-law say "Let's see what you've brought", clearing addressing her remark to my girlfriend, and feeling very much like a What, rather than a Who. It may have helped that I carried a soft sided leather satchel--grief case, as I called it--that resembled those supplied to federal public servants once upon a time.  It didn't help that my future outlaws couldn't pronounce my name.  And the fact that I am everybody's friend and feel that everybody can be my friend was like chicken soup, which, according to a wise Jewish mother, "couldn't help, but it couldn't hurt". To be more specific, being everybody's friend was like cock-a-leekie, hearty and flavourful, and pleasantly thick! Being thick, definitely mattered, but I had the fatal flaw of being both interpersonally thick and socially thin skinne...