Picture this with me: More than a decade ago, I’m sitting at a crowded bar, and this guy who I’ve just met (who, by the way, has whiskers and a nose drawn on his face), is chattering away, sloshing his beer about clumsily. But instead of talking about himself, he spends most of our time together pointing around the bar, and telling me stories about each of his buddies and listing all the quirky characteristics that endear each one of them to him.