Talking in America

From the story "Dance in America" by Lorrie Moore (and quite nicely read and discussed by Louise Erdrich on a podcast from The New Yorker.)

The narrator is having dinner with an old friend Cal, and his wife Simone, who she (the narrator) has not met before.

Simone has prepared Peking Duck, which is ropy and sweet. Cal keeps passing around the basket of bread, anxiously, talking about how modern man has only been around for forty-five thousand years and bread probably hasn't changed much in all that time.

"Forty-five thousand years?" says Simone. "That's all? That can't be. [. . . ]"

There are people who talk with their hands. There are people who talk with their arms. Then, there are people who talk with their arms over their head. Those are the ones I like best. Simone is one of those.

This made me laugh: "Then, there are people who talk with their arms over their head."

Then, this pleased me: "Those are the ones I like best."