I don't think it's arrogance, lynn. It's too, umm, frenetic for that, too desperate. Listen to him long enough and you do get the impression that, for him, if he stops talking, something dreadful will happen. I have no idea what, but something terrible. I don't think he's either nervous or over-confident. If you asked me what I really, really thought, way down deep, I'd have to say that he's dealing (at some subterranean level) with the results of being his mother's son, just as I am in my own way. Having her as a mom when you're tiny created this deep, deep reservoir of pure plutonium pain far, far down from the surface. He drank. Brother Pete shot up. I lived in la-la land. Gil got a full, old-fashioned psychoanalysis. It all fits. Take care!