Have you ever experienced that moment when a phrase or reference that you believed was commonly used and understood is greeted with a quizzical look and the response, "Uh, what?"
It's happened to me a lot.
One that stands out to me was when I was doing a lot of business travel last year. I traveled with a lot of other people who also traveled a lot, and it wasn't uncommon that people would be upgraded to first class.
One groggy Thursday night I was standing at a gate with a coworker and I asked, "So, are you flying Fat Boy?"
My coworker was speechless, lobbing a slightly offended stare in my direction.
"First class. Were you upgraded to first class?" I clarified, trying to backtrack on what he construed as a dig about the weight he had put on while traveling for business and dining with an expense account.
Sucking in his gut and readjusting his pants, he said, "Yeah, I got upgraded. What did you call it? 'Fat Boy'?"
Yes. I called it "Fat Boy". For years my dad has referred to first class as "Fat Boy". I've since learned that my uncle called it that once and it just stuck, but it never occurred to me that it wasn't a common phrase.
