Not quite at Boethius dialogue standards

You know how it is. It is 3am and the party is dying down to the embers of conversation. People are lounging on the furniture. The i-pod has shuffled onto the Best Unplugged Album in the world…Ever! Then someone asks about the kid down the street who has the disproportionately large head.

DTD: Do you ever see that guy, Nemo, still around?
GT: Yes, I see him around sometimes.
DTD: Do you know why he was called Nemo at school?
GT: Because that was his name.
DTD: Really? That is so funny! I noticed that someone had written “NEMO” on his picture in the School Yearbook and thought that it was his nickname or something because – well – he had an oversized head and children are not nice with that sort of thing. His name – brilliant.
GT: No, kids are bad for that – his nickname was The Atomic Kid.
DTD: Why?
GT: Because of his massive head!
DTD: Oh! That’s cruel. My mum told me that Nemo was highly intelligent because of the size of his head, so I was not to make fun of him.
GT: That's true. IBM giant head-hunted Nemo. They put him in a filing cabinet and called him DEEP BLUE.


DTD: I don’t get it.
GT: That was a terrifically funny joke for the computer geeks out there.
DTD: Right. Yes. Well I don’t get it.
GT: My point is that I don’t think he really is super intelligent. That is possibly why your mum said it. So it would stop you from making fun of him.
DTD: Maybe. But his Dad worked for NASO so there must be some intelligence in the family.
GT: NASO?
DTD: You know – NASO. The space people?
GT: That’s not the space people. NASA – they are the space people. I have no idea what NASO are. Maybe they are the slightly less funded, chewier, own brand of space exploration. Like Coco-pops and Choco-flakes.
DTD: Right enough! For years I thought his dad worked on the US space programme! OK, maybe it is just a genetic thing – his big head – because I heard that his mum needs a special chair at work.
GT: Wait, this is too much! What does requiring a special chair got to do with a large head? Unless, of course, she needs the special chair because she had to give birth to Nemo’s head. Maybe that’s what the doctor said to her: “Mrs. Nemo, your baby has a gigantic head, we hope that it means it will be super intelligent.”
DTD: Don’t be nasty! It is a shame for him.
GT: Sorry, you are right, I’ll stop now.
DTD: Anyway, you are probably right. I don’t think his head has made him that bright. The reason I asked in the first place was that I saw Nemo working in the local supermarket. He is a grocery bag packer. He packed my shopping. He was very good at it too. He says that he is the best bag packer in the shop.
GT: Does he use telekinesis?
DTD: I am changing the subject.