Pats on the Head

It's amazing sometimes how much people fish for compliments... needing the pat on the head, wanting to be sure that everyone knows how popular they are with certain important people, or how something they did was recognized or rewarded.

One of my colleagues started a random conversation with an off-handedish "you know how I'm writing this Encyclopedia article..." as if that was the old news, and then continued with "well it turns out it's about international pedagogy, so I have to do more research..." He knows that he's never mentioned writing the article to me because that's not his way. He's been using this technique with me for years but I totally see through it and refuse to feign the "we're not worthy" praise he's trying to get from me.