When I was in junior high, the band and I would often take the bus to Trenton and Ewing, mostly to visit Chopin Music and drool over the amplifiers, guitars, drum sets, and keyboards. One day we were walking along Olden Avenue and I saw a VW convertible with a teenage girl wearing curlers and driven by her boyfriend slowly drive by. I said out loud to my friends, “Look at her. She looks like a crocodile.” The car screeched to a halt, backed up, and I noticed the girl crying. The big boyfriend stepped out of the car. He said to me, “What did you say?” I said I didn’t mean anything by it,” He paused for a second, looked at his girlfriend, pointed at me, and got in his car and sped away. My heart still beats hard today just thinking about it. My friends said in a nice way, that it was a stupid thing for me to say. But they also said if he was coming after me, they would’ve most likely helped me beat him up, or at least provide emotional support while I was getting my clock cleaned. What made me do it? I blame it on a combination of ignorance and insensitivity, both characteristics common in adolescent boys and, as I learned later,  political pundits.