how very fifth elephant and vimes and thin cucumber sandwiches! for yeen teck has got into MFA and says they'll be sending him to uberwald in due course. i want him to wheedle so that they will station him in boston instead. von will be gone next year, so i need a new supply of supportive men friends to have nervous breakdowns on.

me: so what will you be doing in MFA?
him: preparing submissions, monitoring changes in countries i'm supposed to cover, that sort of thing.
me: right. so, analyst kind of thing?
me: you're not the hand-shaking cocktail-drinking kind of diplomat?
me: no handing the cucumber sandwiches around?
him: i suppose you could say that.