Not sure it's good form to claim this for yourself, but . . .
2 stories down reminds me of one.

I used to commute by tube. One day I'm sitting reading the paper, when a rather grubby looking man, with his foot in plaster stumbles in on a pair of crutches, and sits down next to one of the passengers in front of me.

The passenger was what looked like the dad of an Italian family, his wife and kids were sitting next to him.

Mr Foot-in-plaster immediately starts talking to Italian dad, spouting absolute nonsense - 'Hello, my mate is the world train driving champion you know' . . .

Italian Dad is totally nonplussed, looks very uncomfortable as the barage of bullshit continues. Mum and kids are looking frightened.

So, doing my bit for UK/Italian relations, I got up, went to the other side of hopalong and engaged him in an absorbing conversation, along the lines of 'Mate, he hasn't got a clue what you're talking about, what's up with your foot, do you like football, I went wo Wales once, how about Eastenders . . .', etc, with short pauses for breath.

Actually, turns out the guy had just left the casualty department, having broken his foot. Seems they'd given him some kind of painkillers, not having checked if he'd been drinking, which probably explained his wierd behaviour.

Anyway, the effect was he left the tourists alone, and talked to me. Have never had a wierder conversation in my life.

The tourists eventually left, without a word, maybe not even realising what had happened. When the noisy guy left, a woman sitting nearby said 'Hey, that was really nice of you', so I did get some credit.
(username failed moderation, Thu 9 Feb 2012, 14:31, Reply)