Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Eschew Obfuscation



"Eschew Obfuscation" is one of my all time favorite bumper stickers. How's that for laying myself bare. In one stroke I've admitted that I have a favorite bumper sticker and that it's a bumper sticker for the uber-geek. At any rate, for those of you who don't suffer from morbid dorkitis--"Eschew" means to avoid and "obfuscation" refers to the act of making something intentionally confusing so that it can't be understood. (Are you laughing or is that crickets I'm hearing?)

It brings to mind the sad tale of a man who died because, when he went to the emergency room complaining of chest pains, the doctor checked him out and told him he needed to take it very easy because he'd had a mild myocardial infarction (a heart attack). The doctor wanted to run more tests and left the room to order them. The man, thinking that "infarct-whatchamacallit" was some form of gas, and not wanting to pay for more tests when he could just take some Pepto-Bismol, walked out the door. In the busyness of the ER, no one contacted him to find out why he left. The next day he collapsed and died while climbing the stairs to his office.

On the other hand, I don't suppose yelling "conflagration!" in a crowded movie house would get you in much trouble.

3 comments:

Esther said...

Cricket, cricket.

Anonymous said...

no crickets here, just laughter! this is my favorite bumper sticker as well.

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!