I had an incredibly Mezzanine-like experience the other week, a I have to tell the world about it.
So. One day, my mother and I discovered that our right brake light was out. We subsequently fixed said brake light, and went on our merry ways.
The next day, the left brake light went out.
I nearly exploded with Howie-like excitement. What are the chances that one brake light would go out the day after the other one! 'This is crazy!' I thought. 'I have to tell Mr. Mitchell!'
For those of you who haven't read The Mezzanine, the main character, Howie, breaks one shoelace one day, and on his way to buy a replacement the next day, breaks the other one. He wonders what are the chances of this ridiculous coincidence. I wonder what are the chances of both break lights going out.
The world may never know.
1 comment:
Oh, man. But to fulfill the complete "Mezzanine experience," you can't simply pose the question, "What are the chances?" You'd then have to go into a lengthy digression exploring how one might meaningfully calculate these "chances"--and all the other implications of this curious occurrence (are brake lightbulbs sold in pairs? do the makers *expect* that they will die out at the same time? had they been the same age, or had one been replaced already since the car was new? Average number of brake applications per motor-outing. Whether or not stomping hard on the brake strains the bulbs more than a gentle nudge on the pedal, a gradual slowdown, etc. etc. etc.)
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