1535 Mental Switch

Sometimes you'll go along and all reality just seems boring and normal. And then there'll be some mental switch—like your brain got a dose of antihistamines or something, and a new reality will suddenly clear.
Like the other day I was saying "BTW" out loud to someone. And it occurred to me BTW is a great abbreviation when it's written in print or text , but to say it out loud actually un-abbreviates it. It takes a lot longer than saying "By The Way." That darn W letter. The only letter in the English language with a full three syllables.
I also had a mental switch recently about this rideshare program we're talking about on the radio. It's a pretty cool deal. Rideshare Online. You can go to the website and sign up and it hooks you up with people going the same way as you are on a trip.
Wow. How far we've come since the sixties. Rideshare. Didn't we use to call that hitchhiking? Maybe we'll should call the online version e-hitchhiking.
Not long after that, some guy was telling me how he used a groupon at a strip mall. And I misheard him and thought he said grope on. And really, it was natural thing for my mind to do. Where else would you use a grope-on but a strip mall?
And how is it for years and years we have used the term strip mall without thinking it's some shopping center for burlesque?
"Yeah, I went to this sushi place at the strip mall, and it was really weird. Behind the counter there was this huge out of shape Japanese guy with very sharp knife. And he was naked."
That's a mental switch I'd like to turn off.
Not BTW…
BTEU…
America, ya gotta love it.