Metropolitan Diary: A Swinging Bag and a Retort in the Subway L'esprit d'escalier is a term I learned from a friend. It is French and describes the experience of coming up with a perfect comeback only after having left the situation where it might have been used. My story is a rare if unlofty instance of finding and using a satisfying retort in real time. I was recently on the A train going downtown with my 3-year-old son in my lap and my shoulder bag beside me. The train was crowded, as it was the morning rush, and a woman squeezed in beside me, sitting on my bag. I didn't mind, and had my son not been on my lap, my bag would have been. A little before our stop, I began trying to dislodge my bag, but she took no notice and we remained trapped. As the doors opened at 59th Street, I saw that we would have to get up instantly to make it out before the doors closed, so I stood up, yanking my bag out from under her. As a result my bag swung backward toward her (but it didn't touch her). Suddenly alert and furious at this commotion, the woman asked angrily, "Why don't you just hit me in the face with your bag?" to which I replied, "I don't have time," and whisked my son and bag off the train in the nick of time. I enjoyed the memory all the way up the stairs.