The Sad Bear

February 14, 2010

Moments of clarity

One of Mr. Garner's favorite columnists is Ken Burger at the Charleston Post & Courier. Over the weekend he wrote about "ah-ha" moments when you realize that for many years you'd been thinking erroneously about something that is common knowledge to the rest of the world.

A friend of mine said he was in his 30s when it suddenly dawned on him, in a moment of clarity, that pickles and cucumbers were actually the same thing, only different.

These "aha" moments are usually kept secret. We all know that feeling when you realize that everybody else in the world knew something you didn't know. ...

Most recently, I came to understand that cup cakes were made from regular cake mix poured into little cups. I somehow assumed there was some kind of special cup cake mix.

Katie and I put together a list of our realizations:

:: That raisins are grapes (T)
:: It's "human being," not "human bean" (K)
:: Hybrid cars need not be plugged into an outlet (K)
:: Boil water first, then add pasta noodles (T)

I seem to remember college bringing out these sorts of realizations in great quantities. But I can't seem to remember them (except for some arguments about pronunciation ... "copulate," etc.). Maybe you guys can remember some -- share in the comments (and at Burger's blog).

Labels: Charleston, newspapers, nostalgia

by Tony at 8:49 PM |