The Cellophane Controversy

Okay, I've refrained from collecting these but have now decided to mention a few.  A few of what?  Of the things I think something says but doesn't.  When reading, am I simply so jaded, shall we say, about what's in front of me that I am no longer all that mindful of what the words actually say?  Or (and this is sometimes true) are my eyes not quite as good as they once were?  Anyway, I can come up with some doozies.  Take the cellophane controversy.  I saw that as the title of an article on a progressive web-site written by an American woman (doctor) who, disgruntled, left her home here and skedaddled off to live in New Zealand.  Hmm, I thought, I haven't heard about the cellophane controversy.  But then I realized it wasn't cellophane at all, it was cellphones--a piece about whether cellphones and Wi-Fi are linked to brain tumors and the die-off of honeybees.

Then I was watching a movie with James Garner and Joan Hackett that was briefly described as being about a gambler who became the sheriff of a small town and used his wife rather than his gun to enforce law and order.  I wondered just how he did that.  What did his wife have to do ... and then he and his co-star hadn't even started courting yet.  Oh ... I re-read it and it wasn't his wife, it was his wits.  Well, still four letters.

Or, there's the one when I was presented with an update here on my computer.  It described "new features which help content developers deliver rich and engaging experiences."*  In my loose fashion, I came away with an image of conTENT developers--sitting back in easy chairs sipping tea--only to realize they were, of course, CONtent developers.

Then, at my computer, I clicked onto an arrow to see what it did and got "Display the progress of going backwards."  I didn't think much about it and went on to something else but then started to wonder.  What did that mean--the progress of going backwards?!  It sounded rather Zen-like.  Checking it out, I saw the actual description read, "Display the progress of ongoing downloads."  Ouch.  

I sometimes feel as if I'm skating on ice.  Just sort of glazing (or glossing) over the tops of things, not really taking them in.  As if I've been at this--life?--so long, I have the knack and don't have to pay all that much attention anymore.  Mostly, that works.

Something else Zen-like.

*(Credit is given:  quotation is by Adobe [registered trademark] Flash [registered trademark] Player.  Please note: I tried using my software to incorporate the Registered Trademark symbol--a capital R with a circle around it--but kept getting this symbol,  Ò ... which seemed fairly worthless so I gave up.  I might have tried another technique but when I did try that once a few years ago, instead of what it was supposed to do, it put a period between every word in every document in every file in my computer!  Of course, I freaked out and never did that again.)