a rare moment of victory, rare as a unicorn

I was arguing over the telephone with my father about whether oil drilling should commence ASAP in all areas of America where oil is likely to be. He is of the Republican opinion that duh, we need oil, and those lily livered environmentalists should stand out of the way. (Surprisingly enough this man holds that opinion after writing a guide to energy conservation in the seventies and spending much of his life tinkering with solar power before it was fashionable).

"Even if all the oil reserves in the U.S. were exhausted, that would only buy us about a year. It's just a blip in the world oil supplies." That point didn't seem to go anywhere, as my father seemed to feel it would be gentlemanly of us to take up the burden of oil production so long demanded of our global acquaintances.

"California has a huge economy, it's a rich state, and our major industry is tourism. It would be asinine to risk our beautiful coastline, on which we depend for our biggest industry, tourism, for just a few months worth of oil supply. It's the same in Florida; they make all their money off tourism, and it would be crazy to risk it with offshore drilling."

My father says slyly, "So how many tourists you got there this year, with everyone staying at home?" I can tell he thinks he has me.

I close in for the kill: "Hotel occupancy rates are way up. The city's full of Europeans. And it's affecting everything. I read in the Chron that they're all determined to try the best California wines, and with the dollar so weak, they're ordering $200 bottles when they used to get cheap ones. They come to shop, because everything costs so much less here than back home. It's like they're running around in a bargain basement store. They get a lot of electronics."

He actually took this point and gave up the debate.

I am over forty, and I have finally won an argument with my father.