Answer # 47 - A Flapper and a Screamer

A friend's father posited this concept to him, upon his graduation from college:

"Son, there are two types of people in the world - when they jump off a cliff - there are either Flappers or Screamers.  You need to ask yourself, son, are you a Flapper or a Screamer?"

Consider this:  You're standing on the edge of a cliff.  You jump off.  The question is then

Are you a Flapper or a Screamer?

"What the hell was that supposed to mean?!" my friend asked, baffled, aghast.. baffled.

"I..er..."

"I mean, what the hell? Why'd my father ask me that? Why would I be jumping off a cliff?  Is he expecting that I'll be jumping off a cliff? And what damn difference would it make if I flapped or screamed?!"

Adventure Boy and I discussed later.

"I'm a Flapper," I said.  "Definitely a Flapper."

Looking aghast and then bemused, Adventure Boy said, 'You, my dear, are a Screamer.  You are definitely a Screamer."

"I'm am so NOT a Screamer!  I'm a Flapper!  I'd Flap!"

"You'd scream."

"I'd flap!  Possibly I'd scream while I flapped, but there would be flappage!"

He went back to reading.  The book about the guys who did the first winter ascent of Mt. McKinley (Denali) in the dead of winter.  It's his favorite (Minus 148 degrees. Yep.).  He met Dave Johnston, one of the guys on that expedition when we played on Whole Wheat Radio in Talkeetna, as has been enamored since.
Because he's Adventure Boy, he'd do something as insane as climbing a snow-covered iceberg in the middle of winter, with the looming possibility of perilous doom with every pick of the ice ax or whatever the hell you climb with. 

But he's not worried - not of falling thousands of feet to a squishy death - nope!  Because he's a Flapper!  We both know he's a Flapper.  He'd probably flap hard enough to fly.

But I'd flap, too.  I swear, I'd flap.  [Screaming the whole merry way].