The BT Wannabe Litvak vs. The Real Litvak

Something very refreshing about the hotel I worked at over Pesach was the wide variety of Yidden in attendance. There were ashkenazim and sefardim, modernish types, yeshivish types, tradional types, americans, canadians, israelis, FFBS, not so FFBS, BTs, OTDs, etc.

Aside from the warm fuzzy achdus feeling this hodge podge of Jewry gives me, there is something else I enjoyed - the opportunity to see how different types of people interact.

It was the night of the first seder and we (The Lubavitcher mashgichim and Rav Hamachshir) were all sitting together (those of us not on duty anyway). A man with a hat (not exactly the right type of fedora though, first give away) and trim beard approached us. "Gut Yom Tov!" he exclaimed. He then offered a short synopsis about how he became a BT through Chabad. He finished by offering the following with a smirk, "I don't learn Chassidus though. Mussar only!" and then turned around and walked away.

(Agav, I have never seen anyone so proud before about their non-limud of Torah. It was easy to read in between the lines the attitude of "No sir, I don't need any of that Chassidus stuff. I am just fine the way I am. My frumme grandparents didn't learn Chassidus why should I? Let me make a crack at you while I'm at.")

The next morning this man was sitting at a table with an older gentleman from Bnei Brak. You wouldn't call him yeshivish but you would call him a Litvak.
So Mr. Wanna-be-Litvak tries to show off to Mr. Bona-fide Litvak by freely offering up everything he knows about any Litvish Gadol he has ever heard of. He's talking about how much he loves The Chofetz Chaim and in between offerings he says things like "You met The Chazon Ish wow!!!!" The Real Litvak doesn't have much interest in the conversation but he is polite and allows The Wannabe to toot his own horn a little while longer. He is visibly impatient but The Wannabe doesn't notice.
Then The Wannabe makes his crucial mistake. "Do you like the Dubner Maggid? I love his stories?" "Stories? Who has time for stories? (I'm busy learning)" and with that he completely deflates The Wannabe and the conversation crashes and burns.