Recently I had to spend some time with a very boring, tedious person. Either I am a better editor of my life now, in that I've successfully deleted most of those characters, and I've lost my tolerance, my immune system, or I'm just getting old and losing my patience: I found the experience excruciating . Horrific. What really got me is how this man could be so oblivious to the pain associated with his own presence, how he could miss the way people reacted to him, his company like an affliction, like something radioactive. Ugh.