dcnovice
Posts: 37282
Joined: 8/2/2006 Status: offline
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<fast reply> One fine day in my childhood, I decided to make cinnamon toast. Did the bread, spread the butter, then went to the spice rack. Looked too quickly at the label, saw the "C," and failed to notice that I was putting celery salt on my snack! Learned a lesson that day about the double-edged nature of labels. On the one hand, they can be mighty handy. When I'm making plum pudding, it's awfully nice to be able to tell the allspice (which I use) from the mace (which I don't) apart without having to open each jar and taste the similar-looking contents. Similarly, it's handy when a profile tells me whether someone is dominant or submissive, gay/bi or straight without my needing to contact each individual and ask. On the other hand, though, my taste of celery salt toast (not recommended, btw) reminds me that labels need to be looked at carefully. I need to ask myself whether the label really says what I think it does and (in the case of people) whether it means the same thing to someone else as it does to me.
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No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up. JANE WAGNER, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
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