"Good choices," Ned says, adds bell pepper to the list, working in silence for a moment as he thinks what he should ask Ginsberg next. He settles on something related to his job, because he always seems to eager to talk about that, and because it's still quite interesting to Ned, who had never really thought about the people behind ads before he met Ginsberg.

"Next question, I guess, is if you could do an ad for any product in the entire world, what would it be?"

He puts a pan on the stove and puts a small dab of butter in it, assembling in his mind what he could say about himself, what he wouldn't mind saying, what will make him sound like an interesting and worthwhile person. Because he wants Ginsberg to like him, doesn't want to scare him off or make his curiosity turn into scorn.