#966 Obvious Oblivious

Sometimes you see something and you wonder: What were they thinking? Something that is so patently obvious and of which they are so obviously oblivious, you scratch your head hard enough to draw blood.
Case in point: The other day I was at a fancy coffee shop. I ordered tea. The barista carefully measured out the loose organic tea from a sealed glass jar and spooned it into one of those non-bleached diaper-like bags, for all I know handwoven by indigenous tribal members for full circle, fair trade wages. All was perfectly and environmentally correct and filled with a full measure of social conscience.
Then, to hold the teabag closed, she took out a cheap Bostich stapler and clunked down a staple in the end. With what appeared to be an ordinary riddled-with-toxic-impurities base metal staple.
What was she thinking?
Not long after that, I chanced to drive by a new apartment building going up. They named it with one of those Spanish or Latin sounding names. You know, like Vista del Sol or Buena del Mar or something. Except the name was Tabula Rasa. Which sounds nice and exotic, and familiar at the some time.
Except, it means “blank slate.”
Okay, maybe they meant that. Maybe it’s a place for starting over. Unfortunately it’s also a philosophical term used to describe the way certain philosophers and psychologists theorize the mind starts at birth—a blank slate¾upon which is then carved the experiences of your life that make you who you are.
And doubly unfortunately, the new apartment complex being created, named the Blank Slate, is a couple of doors down from an Alzheimer’s care facility. Where a different type of blank slate is being created.
What were they thinking?
And finally, I was driving behind a big manly truck the other day and I read this guy’s bumper stickers. One of them was an American flag with the obligatory “Love it or Leave it” slogan. The other one was a sticker that said “I Love my AK-47.”
Um, isn’t the AK-47 a Russian gun?
Way to put American gun makers out of work, dude.
What was he thinking?
America, ya gotta love it.