much wiser way to conduct oneself in business situations .. .
or social ones for that matter. As far as I could tell, the
goal was not to impress people, but rather to be impressive.
In line with that, I resolved to not only discourage the
“Mister Skeeve” title, but to also drop “The Great Skeeve”
hype. I had never really believed it anyway. What I was
was “Skeeve,” and people could either be impressed or
not by what I was, not by what I called myself.
If this seems like a sudden bolt from the blue to you, it
isn’t. The area of Perv I was covering was large enough
that I was spending considerable time riding back and forth
in Edvick’s taxi, and it gave me lots of time to think and
reflect on what I was seeing and hearing. What’s more, the
advice given me by the Butterfly and Kalvin, not to mention
the questions I had to ask myself about trying to fetch Aahz,
had given me cause to reexamine my own attitudes and
priorities, so I had plenty to think about.
Dealing with what seemed to be an endless parade of
people who had never heard of me before, much less met
me, gave me a unique chance to observe how people in-
teracted. More and more I found myself reflecting on how
I reacted to them and they reacted to me.
MYTH-NOMERS AND IM-PERVECTIONS 163
Pervects had a reputation for being nasty and vicious, not
to mention arrogant. There was also ample evidence that
they could be more than slightly rude. Still, I had also
encountered individuals who had been helpful and gentle,
such as the Butterfly, and even those like J.R. who would