"What are they going to do, chitchat about the kids for an hour?" Ms. Summers said.
After spending most of September having rows about the constitution, in the Pax household we seem to be happy to ignore politics and just do chitchat.
The subtext was not "Oh, we're so clever and deep, we don't do chitchat!" but one of regret, that there is an avenue of experience and delight closed off to us.
You don't chitchat with your buddies.
Things were a bit awkward at first (the photographer, two cameramen, and producer in the room probably had something to do with that), but we tried to make chitchat while Genesis showed us her prized biker vests. .
He theorized that ape and human brains could manage only a finite number of grooming relationships: unless we spend enough time doing social grooming — chitchatting, trading gossip or, for apes, picking lice — we won't really feel that we "know" someone well enough to call him a friend.
"Bush does not like chitchat when he jogs," Mr. Lindlaw wrote.
Nineteen of us will be riding together on this tour, and while we do the introductory chitchat, I complete my personal inventory: I am one of the oldest, one of the fattest, and besides that, my knee hurts.
He begins a sales pitch the way most car salesmen do, with friendly chitchat.
You can ask us to get to the point, or remind us you don't enjoy chitchat, and we'll apologize (for the ump-teenth time) and let you get off the phone.
