Quickies: “Pigeonholer Malfunction”

     I’ve had some occasions on which my physical perceptions were humorously reinterpreted by what I think of as the “pigeonholing function” of the mind. That function takes perceived objects and attempts to categorize them as already-established kinds of things. This is a known operation of the mind, a built-in labor-saving device we all have, not something that happens only to me...but now and then, my pigeonholer makes an amusing mistake.

     For example, shortly before I retired, I was driving home from work, passed an insurance broker’s offices, and about three seconds later hauled my car to the curb with a “Say what?” reaction. It seemed certain that the marquee beside his office said:

Specializing In The Homeless

     But of course, it really said Specializing In The Homeowner, as I discovered when I walked back to read it at close range.

     I had another one a few minutes ago: a Web ad which, when it first registered on my consciousness, seemed to say:

Is A
Reverse Marriage
Right for You?

     I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what it really said. After I stopped laughing, I spent several minutes trying to figure out how a “reverse marriage” would work. Would the reverse spouses have sex with everyone except one another? Would they share housekeeping expenses with all their neighbors and friends, but not with one another? And what about the children? Think of the children!

     “The mind is a strange and wonderful device.” – Actor John Agar, in some cheesy science-fiction flick or other.