Jason Michaud, 38, who owns Local, a restaurant along Dr. Abrams's route, said diners at sidewalk tables would look up from their plates and pause conversations to watch him pass.
The VIP section was dotted with models in leather skirts (summer's over; get your leather on) and club kids in expensive tops and faces streaked with body paint, pausing conversations to pose for dreadlocked photographers.
I then proceed to repeat that fact any time there's a pause in conversation.
Similarly, women should pause in conversation to check for signs of life in the man.
The others laugh, but after a pause the conversation takes a sobering turn.
Mike is happy to just wave a driver through the car park gate without paying so he doesn't have to pause his conversation with Stacy.
I'll notice a sidelong look at my personal assistant, a pause in conversation, while the person tries to work out if everything is "OK" – by which they mean: normal.
If the conditions are not in your favor, for instance the person is riled up or you're out in public, choose to pause the conversation and regroup.
Steve Jobs famously insisted on designing office layouts so that people would run into each other during an average workday, and meet others in the company they might not know, in settings that could facilitate a moment of pause and conversation.
Desperate to pause the conversation because I had to respond to a few work emails, I said to him: "Sir, you are so articulate and knowledgeable, but I really need to answer some work emails now".
Very quickly, as if having passed an accident on the highway that makes us pause our conversation and shutter, we will, as we must, continue along down the road of our lives.
