#1022 Trick Finger

Works can be tricky. Especially when you mess with their spelling. Recently I wrote about Ben-Gay, the analgesic cream the relieves pain, and I learned that it is now called Bengay, with one word and the “G” in gay not capitalized. It also lost its hyphen somewhere in the process of joining with Ben.
So I wonder why they felt it necessary to minimize the gay in Ben-Gay. Was it simply because it was hard to spell? Did it sell less well in red states to the older clientele that was its main target? Or in the end, were they trying to slip in a more nefarious agenda?
Maybe they were simply trying to minimize confusion.
“I’m your day orderly at the eldercare home, Mr. Johnson. Do you like your new room? What’s that you’re rubbing on your joint?”
“Ben-Gay.”
“That’s okay with me. Is that something for your arthritis?”
“Ben-Gay.”
“Look, here at the assisted care facility, we don’t care what you used to be, Mr. Johnson, but we do care about what creams, analgesics, or medications you’re taking. So what is it?”
“Ben-Gay.”
“Oh never mind, you old coot...I’m going to check on your roommate Mr. Dover...”
The other tricky thing about words is when you have a trick finger like I do. Sometimes when I’m tapping my keyboard the darn thing gets out of sync. It’s like I have dyslexic fingers or something.
When I intend to type in “for” I almost always type in “fro.” It makes fro an interesting read if I fail to catch it. Conversely, I type in “form” when I need to type “from.” But the other day I really almost blew it. I was writing an email inviting a person to attend a Lion’s Club charity event and I dyslexified the vowels in lions.
I ended up inviting her to come see the loins.
Yeah, and there will be a circus where they’ll have loin tricks. Not a good mistake. Thank goodness I wasn’t inviting her to see that Disney cartoon.
An invitation to join me at a special showing of the Loin King may have sent the wrong message.
America, ya gotta love it.