Name Dropper

Dear Suze Q. My husband and I spent days showing his visiting cousin our town. He’s in his 70s but was an active studio musician decades ago. He dropped celebrity names and repeated stories of wild nights with wilder bands he played with once until I wanted to duct-tape his mouth shut. Why do people do this? 

Dear Unimpressed, Name dropping is to impress the listener that the speaker’s tight with someone important or famous, that they travel in the same social orbit.  Therefore, he's superior to the listener because he's also famous (by association). Utter bullshit in most cases which is why the listener is usually turned-off and pissed-off with the arrogant braggart. Keep your duct tape close. -SQ