Always the Bing

This is totally off-topic (TOT) but some things can't be helped.

One of the great things about Seinfeld was that they often had two conversations going at once. Jerry and Elaine would be talking about something, and George would add something irrelevant. They would continue their conversation, and George would continue inserting his own, unrelated thoughts. It was funny because it caricatured a thing that happens all the time.

It happens all the time. Even between me and the wife. She was away on business. The dogs missed her. I cheered them up by telling them Mommy will bring you a souvenir. (That actually works with our dogs.) Then I wrote myself a reminder (to remind her) and stuck it in my pocket.

Then I remembered I could just send an email. So I lathered something up about the dogs and sent it off. Here's her reply:

I'm all packed. I'm leaving in the morning so I should be home around noon. I got great souvenirs! Cal Ripkin Jr (the baseball player) was one of the speakers and he signed a freebee IBM baseball for me. I also got Gwenn Ifill to autograph her book. I also got you a book on creative lawn mowing - it even has astroturf on the cover :) See you tomorrow

Anything for the dogs? She hit the word souvenir and BANG! off she went.

Same thing with B at work. I'll mention some movie I saw last night. He keys on the word movie and off he goes. And none of it is about the movie I saw last night. B's like that with everybody, every time. It works for him. He's the funniest guy in the place.

It happens a lot. While I was thinking about it, it happened again. P caught me talking to myself and made a joke. Bang! I responded by wondering why he was talking to me. Then I mentioned a scene from Waterworld: At the bar, Kevin Costner asks the bad guy, "Why are you talking to me?"

Bang! He's off! P answered with a quip about "that old movie," which took him to "old movies," which took him to "Remember West World?" and "Who was that bald actor?"

People skip across the surface of conversation like stones skipping water. All the time. It's often interesting and usually fun. Still, Seinfeld made fun of it for a reason.

Anyway, I never knew what to call this style of conversation. "Bang" isn't quite right. I never had the word for it. But I do now, thanks to Microsoft. Have you seen those new Bing! commercials that attempt to make fun of Google search results? The wife says something and the husband responds by keying on the least important word the wife said, and offering half a dozen irrelevant expansions of that least important word.

Bing! That's what it is.