Ira Glass
Which brings us to our last couple, Robert and Tamar. They also have a story that gets repeated in their house that has been the source of a small difference in interpretation between them. It's a story they both tell. Though him more than her, you get feeling. They don't tell the story the same way. And we will start with her version of the story.
Tamar Lewin
The first thing you need to know about this story is that I am totally celebrity blind, just completely. So much of my life with Robert has been wandering around New York and him saying, oh, look you were sitting next to Candice Bergen. And I'd say, no I wasn't. And he's always right, and I'm always wrong. So I'm really pleased one day. I'm out all by myself in the world, and I'm on the East Side, and I'm walking down Madison Avenue. And I see someone, and I know-- me the celebrity blind person-- I know absolutely for sure, for sure that this person across the street is Jackie Kennedy. And not only is it Jackie Kennedy, but she's looking at me. And she has her hand up when I smile at her.
Ira Glass
OK, let's stop that right there. Before she gets too far, here is Robert's interpretation of the same event. Their interviews were recorded separately.
Robert Krulwich
It's a beautiful, beautiful fall day. And we're walking down Fifth Avenue. The Central Park is on our right. I just picture this very, very precisely. And we're walking along, and Tamar is distracted. She looks over her left shoulder, and she goes [SOUND OF SURPISE]. There I see, across the street, Jackie Onassis, President Kennedy's wife, and she's waving, very modestly, at Tamar.
Ira Glass
You've probably noticed the key differences already. He says that they're together. She says that she's alone. He says, next to Central Park. She says, Madison Avenue. But once she spots Jackie O, the stories fly in tandem for a while.
Tamar Lewin
She has her hand when I smile at her, and she waves at me.
Robert Krulwich
And I thought, oh my God. I didn't know that they knew each other, whatever. And I'm looking at Tamar, and Tamar's looking at Jackie Onassis.
Tamar Lewin
And I'm so excited. And I wave back sort of tentatively, but beaming, beaming, beaming. And she waves back more so. I then wave back with my whole, whole heart.
Robert Krulwich
So I'm just staring at this in wonder. And then Jackie raises her hand even more excitedly and starts sort of moving it back and forth and back and forth.
Tamar Lewin
And I'm waving, and beaming, and I'm so happy and proud.
Robert Krulwich
And in that moment, a cab pulls up alongside Jackie Onassis. And what Jackie Onassis had actually been doing is just waving for a cab. And my wife, by mistake, somehow thought that Jackie was waving at her and is feeling really stupid.
Tamar Lewin
And so I'm really, pretty humiliated.
Robert Krulwich
As am I.
Tamar Lewin
Because many people had been looking at Jackie Kennedy and many people had been looking at me making a fool of myself, waving, waving, waving, waving.
Robert Krulwich
And so we laugh about it, and we head downtown.
Ira Glass
So we laugh about it, and we head downtown. Now that is where his version of the story ends, a moment of love, a moment of togetherness. Tamar's version of the story continues. In her version, she comes home. Remember, she experienced the whole thing alone in her version. She comes home, and she tells Robert what happened to her. Weeks later, in her version, they are at somebody's house for dinner, and Robert just launches into his version of the story, the version that you just heard.
Tamar Lewin
As we leave that house, I say, you know Robert, you weren't there. And he said, "No. But I remember it, I can picture it, I can see it so clearly." And I say, "But you weren't there."
Robert Krulwich
She says that I wasn't there. Which is astonishing to me. I mean, this is like I can feel this on my skin. I have told this story with such vividness because I remember it so vividly. I just remember things. Like things, like the way the sun was catching leaves. I remember turning around. I remember the intake of breath and the surprise. I remember all the little things going on in my mind . How do they know each other? Oh my God. She said, I wasn't there. I was never there. But she told it to me, and I, just simply, sort of like Ghengis Khan or Alexander the Great I occupied it. Like it was real estate that I wanted to be part of, so I just marched in and became part of it.
Ira Glass
Do you believe her, that you weren't in it?
Robert Krulwich
Yeah. Yeah. Because I live, as all married people do, in a courthouse. And the jury, upon deliberating about this, said, this particular witness has proven over the years a complete-- and she is very, very believable. A credible witness has testified. And you sir? Over the years, we have formed our own opinions about you. Judgment to the wife.
Tamar Lewin
So now it's become a shared story.
Ira Glass
Wait, wait, and he'll tell it, and in his version, he's in the story?
Tamar Lewin
In this version he has his view of what happened, but he says, but actually Tamar says I wasn't there
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This image to the left, is very much not a human face but we can all perceive it as such because we are preprogrammed to make sense of certain arrangements of images as being human faces. A dog will likely never consider smiliey face as looking at all human.
