Where I go 3 times a week, to help get food and dry goods to low income people there is.... uh, there are a couple gals who also volunteer. Oh, fine people, when we work on the same shift, we have a lot of fun, happy-making work, is volunteering. I have seen the Manager of the little shop, a few times, more than a few, get some goods, grab one item and then rub something over it. And then she looks at what it is she is holding and examines it, like a shaman would look over some spread entrails..... and she will say, quietly, 'Hmmmmmmmm.' and maybe she will crinkle up her face and frown, and rub her thing on the item again, and repeat the result, with 'Hmmmmmmm.' I asked, once, what are ya doing? She said, 'Oh, I need to know what this is, and how much the Suggested Retail Price is, so we can stock it in shelves at a huge discount for our customers.' I said, "Cool, lemme see?" It was some sort of cell-phone-almost looking thingie. She was using it to compare items with other items we are gonna sell. She also uses it by holding it by a radio, that has music on, when someone says, "What is that song?" Hmm, I think to myself, daring not to interrupt the Joy Of An I-Gadget Worshiper. I see them walking around next to traffic, not paying any attention to the dangers around em, pushing little button on their I-Thingie and sometimes rubbing it on stuff, or holding it next to things that emit sound. Hmm, a newfangled method of lemming trap? -------------------- Yesterday, I was in The Shop. Two were at the till. No-one else was there, they were alone, my companions at the shop, huddled over something, they were rubbing something on it, what looked like a news magazine. Or a pamphlet, uh, rubbing an I-Thingie on something. I walked over, thinking they had a product and were looking for a suggested retail price they could magically get from their I-Genious or whatever. I was gonna say something, but the two were having such fun, they were excited, in quiet, but sort-of heated discussion, quiet so as not to distract customers in-shop. One said, "...invented the lightening rod..." The other said, "...no, that is Nikola Tesla" I thought "Wrong, the one had little to do, or, uh, nothing to do with the other, hmmm, what are those two doing?" I got closer. The first one said: "Is Baron Münchhausen!" [click click click, loooook, click click click, scan scan scan, looooook] Baron Münchhausen? Jees, who set them up to go into a deadly feedback loop that could result in both of them starting fire...... The had a photocopy print, on it was an old engraved picture. A old fat guy in a old military uniform. Hmm, now that interested me. "OH, they have a 'app' in one of their I-Things! Cool," I thought. It looked, to me, like the thing can help them scan images and argue about who the image is of, or what it is? Closer I came, holding my tongue about Tesla and Ben Franklin and unknown Chinese wizards, they are pondering. I thought, "Hmmm, good, they ain't arguing about Lady Gaga, or a KG of rolled oats..." Closer yet I cam. It came in focus. I said, "Ahem, 'scuse me, that is a picture of Marshal Kutuzov. He didn't invent the lightening rod.... sorry #1." And I turned, smiling like Cheshire cat, back to my happy-work. and from behind me, after a stunned [click click click, pause..... click click click, rub.........] near-silence, came, shouted: TOM, HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT? ... ...
