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| distant: it always seems one's distant relatives are showing up at one's door, introducing themselves, excepting to be let in and treated to a piece of raspberry torte.� my wife bakes a wonderfully raspberry torte, and once word got around even the most far-fetched cries of kinship were calling to claim there due of our house's hospitality.� some relatives, my wife said, are so distant, we can't be required to give them a welcome.� when the chimpanzee showed up, she had half a mind to turn him away.� he was a relation, however, as evinced by his mentioning several of our more stoop-shouldered distant cousins, and despite his unsettling habit of bouncing back and forth and pulling back his gums to display all his yellowish teeth, he was tolerably polite.� he didn't throw his feces or swing from the chandelier, if that's what you are thinking.� my wife was concerned about fleas and other parasites being let into the house, but I assured her that his habit of grooming himself and searching for insects was just an instinct, and didn't mean that he was uncleanly.� over a piece of raspberry torte, which he ate with his fingers, he complimented us on how we'd gotten on in the world, pointing out that our family hadn't always lived in houses with front lawns in the suburbs of Chicago.� my wife blushed at this allusion to her background.� thankfully, he didn't spend the night, saying he had to get back to the jungle, one lost important territory if one was gone to long, but ht nvited us to visit him any time we liked.� he told his wife made a wonderful fruit salad. | ||