Vainglorious Vicissitudes

Yeah, that's exactly what I'd meant. In all of those conversations, the other person/people would come back with a response in less than 10 seconds (usually more like about 1 or 2). You can tell when you're both running out of ideas, because it starts taking longer & longer (10-30 seconds) to think of a good retort. Once it gets to 40 seconds- 1 minute, we usually give up. (Unless someone can suggest an alternative, but related, topic, in which case we're off and running again).