Viola Joe's Girlfriend:

In 1960 and 1961 I played first bassoon in a community orchestra in Manhattan. I met Joe, one of the violists there, and we became good casual friends. Joe liked to talk about his current girlfriend. (I think he had about five different girlfriends while we were in the orchestra together.) The last time he chose this topic with me, he had just started dating a new girl from the Bronx. He assured me that they hit it off really well, the girl looked fantastic, they were going to have some great dates together. “Joe,” I asked, “is her name Beverly Milkman?”

Joe looked at me like he'd been shot. He was dazed, embarrassed. Finally he said, “Yes, how did you know?”
“I just guessed,” I replied. It was a most remarkable guess, and I savored it. There were of course a lot of women living in the Bronx who were the right age – about 20 – and the correct religion – Joe dated only Jewish – but I knew very few of them. Now I had one more string to my bow, and that's how I managed my inspired guess.

Joe was partial to extremely short women. He always remarked on this when he was dating a short gal, and he reacted very positively to the shortest females in the orchestra. I knew Beverly Milkman was the right age, religion, and height: 4' 10”. And so ...

(Beverly, I apologize for using your real name in this blog item; my story just wouldn't be as good without it. I know you're out there, I'd love to get an email from you, I'm tobyr21 at gmail.)