Is It Safe?

Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: You're talking to me?
Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: Is what safe?
Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: I don't know what you mean. I can't tell you something's safe or not, unless I know specifically what you're talking about.
Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: Tell me what the "it" refers to.
Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: Yes, it's safe, it's very safe, it's so safe you wouldn't believe it.
Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: No. It's not safe, it's... very dangerous, be careful.

I was reminded of this clasic scene between Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier from the movie Marathon Man by a story a business asociate recently told me.

My colleague is a partner at a large New York law firm. He does a fair amount of work for me but, more importantly, has recently gotten into biking in a pretty serious way. He's in the market for a new performance road bike and I've been helping him out.

Last Friday he went into the bike shop in Teaneck to start the process. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that buying an expensive bike takes a lot of time and didn't call ahead for an appointment. When he showed up, there were two people ahead of him shopping for bikes (albeit not high performance bikes). It was taking them a lot of time.

One of the shoppers, upon examining a series of different bikes, kept asking the salesman, "Is it safe?"

The salesman kept assuring him that all the bikes were safe.

The shopper looked at my colleague, rolled his eyes, and said, "You believe this guy? He'll say anything to make a sale!"

Is it safe?