Foot IN Mouth disease

Something happened today that reminded me of an incident that, for over five years now, I've been trying to forget.
When I was doing my journalism internship at the Inquirer many years ago, I requested to skip the police beat -- crime reporting just never appealed to me. But when I was assigned to cover showbusiness, I wished I covered murders instead.
For a few weeks, I was asked to cover follow this up-and-coming comedian, Arnell Ignacio - not exactly the kind of internship experience our dean expected us to get. Three showbiz presscons later, I asked for a transfer and was moved to the business section. However, before the biz editors agreed to take me into their department, they wanted to have an idea of my knowledge of business news.
During one of those post-deadline moments, a number of reporters gathered in the newsroom and one of the editors asked if I had any background on Music.
I thought she meant IN music so I proudly talked about the voice, piano and keyboard lessons I took as a child.
Then, there was silence...followed by howling laughter.I was lost! I didn't think failing keyboard lessons would be that funny?!?!?!?!
Later on I found out Music was the name of a company that was supposedly making headlines that time.
That one incident officially made me "DUH" intern of the summer.
And even when I started working for a business paper after college, I would still get the occassional "so that was you???" comment from senior reporters who had obviously heard about "DUH" incident.
Fast forward to this morning...I visited the state capitol hoping to familiarize myself with the state's legislative processess. A city staffer willingly gave me and some other AZ residents a tour of both houses. When we got to the Senate, I noticed that most of the senators had elephants - stuffed or carved - on their desks.
I knew that the elephant is to the republican as the donkey is to the democrat but for some reason - I guess I had my superstitious-feng sui-believing hat on this morning - when I saw elephants, the first thing I thought of was "good luck".
As we were getting ready to leave, the guide pointed out the cute figurines and asked if we had any questions. I should have just kept my mouth shut...but NO! I had to share my excitement with the rest of the group - I told them that I thought it was so cool that even legislators believe in the good luck that elephants - especially those with their trunks pointing upward - supposedly bring.
This one sweet lady grabbed me aside and whispered: dear, those elephants symbolize their party affiliations.
Again, there was silence, but because we were at the senate, the laughter that followed was muffled.
At that moment, I imagined myself in front of a TV camera..."From the State capitol, this has been DUH reporter. Thanks for watching."