Have you ever known someone who was puffed up with pride? Someone with a big ego? Someone who is an “I” specialist, as in the letter I? Someone whose “I’s or “me’s are a little too close together?

When Woodrow Wilson was Governor of New Jersey, a very ambitious young civil servant called him at his home at 3:30 one morning. This young civil servant said urgently, “Mr. Governor, I’m sorry to wake you up, but your State Auditor has just died, and I would like to know if I can take his place.”

Mr. Wilson thought that over for a moment and then replied dryly. “Well, I guess it’s all right with me, if it’s all right with the undertaker.”

I wonder if the young civil servant got the joke. People with a puffed up sense of their own importance rarely do. It’s difficult to put up with people with…