This guy I know who thinks I know everything told me, “You’re like a Google search!”
Well!
In my parochial grammar school (eight years of Catholic School!), the Chief Nun, the Mother Superior, was walking past a line of us kids. Suddenly she stopped in front of me and, for no good reason that I could see, announced:
“[CalMeacham], you’re so smart, you’re dumb!!”
Then she continued on her way.
I’ve gotten a lot of these. A few I remember offhand:
“Marley’s the atheist you’ll know and love.”
-a friend of mine, describing me to another friend (I wasn’t there)
“I’ve never thought of you as being short. I think it’s because you’re proportional. A lot of short people have big heads and stuff.”
-a friend explaining to my why I’m not short (5’7" or so).
But the best one ever - it wasn’t just a compliment, it was the best summary of me ever - needs a little explanation. It was senior year of high school, and my best friend was talking to a bunch of people in drama about how everybody knows Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, but nobody knows who the third Tenor is. I wasn’t really in the conversation, but I stuck my head in and said “Jose Carreras.” She said,
“You’re just the kind of wiseass who would know who the third Tenor is.”