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ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW
I LEARNED FROM T-SHIRTS

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Lesson 27. Pay attention.

One great thing about the Internet is that with email, you can pass on a message exactly as you received it. You just click the ‘forward’ button and you’re good to go.

In the old days, things got confused all the time. Like the famous case of Chinese whispers when an army officer who sends a message to the High Command via a series of messengers. The message starts as ‘send reinforcements, we’re going to advance’. By the time it gets delivered, it has become ‘send three and four-pence, we’re going to a dance’.
There was also reportedly a clairvoyant who thought the spirits said that if she went to Mount St Helens she would ‘fall in love’. She later realised it was a warning that she would fall in lava.

Luckily, the misheard message at my place didn’t have such tragic consequences. In fact, it was quite funny.

My daughter was enjoying a home-baked muffin when I noticed her clothes had been left on the floor of the family room.

“Pick up your clothes,” I told her. “But first put the muffin down.”


She gave me that look seven year olds give their dad when they think you’re being an idiot.

“Pick them up, but put the muffin down first,” I repeated.

Again, that look, as she asks “Put them up and down?”





If you have trouble hearing even when you do pay attention, consider getting a hearing test.

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