Caught in the act

I was wondering if my skill at Solitaire was waning when I noticed something odd. This deck has two Jacks of Clubs! No wonder I couldn’t win no matter what! I couldn’t drag the offending double away off the board, so it seems the only thing to do is restart the computer and hope the glitch is only temporary.

It reminds me of how people think computers and electronics in general are so infallible. Several years ago I was shopping for a thermometer at a pharmacy and saw that there weren’t any plain old mercury thermometers, only the digital ones. I asked the pharmacist if he had any regular analog types and he said Oh no, they’re illegal anymore. “And besides,” he added, “the new ones are all digital!” as if that were a marvelous improvement. I worked in electronics for way too long to be fooled by that belief.

I think I’ll just go to bed.