My first and only strip tease show

No, I didn't GO to a strip tease show: I PUT ON a strip tease show.

As PR guy for a Chicago-based financial futures exchange--you know, one of those places where the trade futures contracts for foreign currencies or stock market indices--I helped, in a small way, set up other exchanges in Singapore, Ireland and Brazil. 

One of those exchanges was in São Paulo, Brazil. BTW, that exchange now is one of the world's biggest and most successful, but not because of me. I only helped get them started. Anyway, after helping them with the easy stuff for a month or so, it was time for me to go back to Chicago for my real job. My new Brazilian friends staged a farewell lunch for me, and I decided to have a little fun with them.

There had been a lot of political turmoil at that time, and the guys in power had set up a parliamentary system, with a handpicked prime minister. But there were a bunch of other guys who were demanding direct elections and a return to the presidential system. The “Diretas Ja” (Direction Elections Now!) movement, calling for immediate presidential elections, was in full swing at that point. I bought a tee shirt with that slogan emblazed on the front. The day of the lunch I wore it underneath my dress shirt and tie. 

While I was giving my farewell speech and thanking my hosts, I said that I was feeling a little hot so I took off my paletó (suit jacket), hung it on my chair and resumed talking. Then I wiped my forehead and said, “Forgive me, but it is really hot in here,” taking off my tie and hanging it on the suit jacket. After a few more sentences, I again complained about the heat and to the astonishment of my friends, I finally removed my shirt, showing the slogan that had become the marching song of such political figures as Tancredo Neves and Leonel Brizola, as well as several popular Brazilian signers such as Gilberto Gil and Chico Buarque de Holanda. 

There was a moment of stunned silence, then they all broke out in laughter and I finished my “strip tease speech”to the loudest and longest lasting round applause that any of my usually boring speeches has ever received.

Okay! Okay! It wasn't a complete strip tease. But I wish my mom had been there. When I was a kid she and I used to sing duets, mostly Irish songs. But there was one that we really liked about "Queenie, the cutie of the burlesque show who stopped--and always just in time." That's what I did that day: I stopped just in time.