L'esprit d'escalier. A woman who I was wooing several years ago said to me that she liked "men who were slightly arrogant".

" I'm not arrogant", I replied, "...far from it, I'm imperfect...it's just that I'm the best imperfect man you're ever going to find..."

If I only I had said that, we might have had something going....I did n't . Open-mouthed, probably, like some winded guppy, but no speech bubble wafting out. Nothing.