Do you want to do it

Often I think of the right response long after the situation has passed. Do you have that sometimes too?

At the time, I simply don't have a good response ready, and I say nothing or I say something limpid, and I go away feeling unfulfilled.

I have read books like The Verbal Art of Self-Defense, yet at the time when I need it, I can't seem to recall one good suggestion.

The other night I took half an hour to watch the last half of Design Star. You know I love decorating shows.

The designers were divided into groups of two and were given living rooms, dining-rooms or bedrooms to create from scratch.

The team I want to mention was made of a man and a woman. Okay, the man was going to wallpaper a wall of the room. The woman came over and said: "Do you know how to wallpaper?"

The man said, "I've papered a wall or two. How about you?"

The lady said she had done some wall-papering in college.

Then the lady proceeded to tell the man how to wallpaper! She said, for example, "You fold it in two like this..."

The man simply responded calmly, "Do you want to do it?"

The woman continued to tell him how to wallpaper without responding to his comment.

For every instruction the woman gave, the man responded calmly: "Do you want to do it?"

That's all he said every time. "Do you want to do it?" He said it as a straight question without any emotional overtones.

Finally the woman walked away with a disgruntled expression on her face.

The man must have slept well that night. He didn't toss and turn thinking of what he should have said, for he had said it. I thought his response was perfect.

I'm going to remember the guy's words: "Do you want to do it?"

And the next time a stranger tries to boss me around, I am ready!