The furthest back that my memory can reach is the summer of 1979 when I was 2 and 1/2 years old. I remember going to a hospital to see my newborn brother for the first time that day. Everybody seemed to be all excited about this new person entering the world so I was interested to see what all the fuss was about.
When we got to the hospital everyone was standing around oohing and ahing over this new person. One phrase kept repeating itself over and over amongst the adults: "He's so cute! He's so cute! He's so cute!" So when the evidence was presented to me I simply took it as my cue to do the same. I looked at him for a second, pondered, and then blurted out, "He's so cute!" This sent all the rest of the people in the room into uproarious laughter for some reason that I couldn't understand. Why did the same phrase seem perfectly logical coming from everyone else's lips, yet from me it drew nothing but laughter?
My attempts to understand the intricacies of social interaction have never gotten any easier.
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