No Tongue

Her bio said she spoke seven languages, and I knew the old European joke...

Q: What do you call a person who speaks one language?
A: An American.

So after her on-air interview, and she had snapped a few pictures with the morning show crew, I found myself alone with Angela as she packed up the promotional photos she autographed routinely at appearances.

"Would you like one of these, too?" she asked.

"No thanks... Black and white could never capture the way I'm going to remember the color of your eyes." They seemed to pick up the brilliant emerald green of her dress.

Her smile was always radiant. Knowing this one was personal... Priceless.

"Seven languages, really?"

"Yes, of course there's Dutch and... "

"No wait! Please say a sentence in each and let me guess."

She was game. And I rattled off Italiano, Español, Français and Deutsch correctly before stalling somewhere in Scandinavia.

"I can't tell if that's Dansk, Norsk or Svensk," I shrugged.

"That's why I only count them as only one language!" she laughed.
"I really do have to go. Are you sure you don't want a photo?"

"I'd rather have your phone number."

"And why is that?" she teased.

"Wie sonst kann man unter so vielen Amerikanern lernen?" I asked in the only common tongue I'd studied: German. (How else can one learn among so many Americans?)

She laughed again and turned one of the photos over to scribble a local LA number on the back, and as she handed it to me, she leaned in to kiss my cheek.

"Nobody will ever believe this," I thought as she scooted out the door on her way to appear on KABC's Good Morning LA, who had been promoting Holland's Angela Visser, the reigning Miss Universe 1989, all morning long.