Long, long ago, in a land
far, far away... well, it wasn't that long ago - just the
early 90's... and its not that far away (
Wisconsin -
California). Hmm... Maybe it was long ago and far away... anyways...
Long ago in a land far away, back at the University of Wisconsin Madison there was a college student who's last name was Blumenthal. You may know him, you may not. If you don't, the best (and probably not the most flattering) way to describe him is that of a slightly heavy set Ronald McDonald with slightly shorter hair.
There was a lab were several computer geek types hung out in, playing with old machines and having a good time. It was also a place for students to get a real email address before the university offered
pop servers.
So anyways, one day a young woman (who's age I cannot recall beyond she was an undergrad (as were we)) walked into the lab. She asked some questions about email accounts and how much the cost was. Most of us were dumbfounded (I am fairly sure I was). Blumenthal was sitting quietly at his terminal typing away all through this. Then, a few minutes after she had left the room and fairly certain she was out of ear shot he said "She's cute."
Unfortunately, it can't quite be captured the inflection of the words in text. I will attempt to describe it like a slide whistle where the "she's" part is at a steady pitch and the "cute" part suddenly slides up.
This happened about two or three times during the year or two he was there finishing up his degree. After he left a couple of us were out wandering in the search of food at reasonable (college student) prices and we passed a young woman. One member of the group said "she's cute" in much the same way (timing included) that Blumenthal did. This comment was got the quick reply of "Ahh... Blumenthal." After that point the phrase "Ahh... Blumenthal" became synonymous with "she's cute" and was safe to say at any time - one did not need to worry about the subject being out of ear shot because it was unlikely that she would understand the reference.
To this day there are times that I have a "Blumenthal moment" where the thought that comes to mind is that of "she's cute" and the wish of being able to say it out loud.