Friday, April 25, 2008

Robert Mugababe

I have a blind spot. Every time I see the word Mugabe in a newspaper headline my brain sees the word Sugababe first. I know that doesn't make sense. I know the two words aren't that alike and I'm not pretending there's ever a moment of tangible confusion where I read the whole headline as if it's about the girl-band (with hilarious consequences!) - it's more that my brain scrambles for a tiny fraction of a second before it arrives at the correct destination and I don't seem to be able to undo it. Odd.

17 comments:

Jack said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I fully expect you've just infected my brain with the same thing.

I still haven't learned to read the surname Sharon in headlines right on my first go. If there's ever a headline now about Mugabe, Sharon and the Ba'th Party I don't know what I shall think.

Anonymous said...

Not me - I still think of Mugabe backwards.

For those that still don't realise -
e ba gum

But hey I'm weird.

Jack said...

You'll all have infected me with these, you know that?! I'm never going to be able to read anything about Zimbabwe again without laughing my head off!

Anonymous said...

Whenever I hear the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki mentioned on the radio, it always makes me think of "Wacky Backy". Childish, but there you go.

Anonymous said...

i have the same thing, when i see 'shopfitters' on a van i always read it as 'shoplifters' - and then i wonder for a few seconds why they are so visible for the crime they like to commit...

Anonymous said...

I saw a newspaper advertising banner out of the corner of my eye the other day, saying "More on Hackney Matalan murder", as I passed by on a bus. I had to keep an eye out for another newagents as I thought it was referring to the murder of my (still alive) friend Alan Hackett.

fatboyfat said...

james mchugh - you beat me to it! I used to think, when I saw "Shopfitters" on a van, "I can't say I approve, but I admire your honesty..."

Jenny Harvey said...

Britains's Got Talent's, ex phone salesman and opera warbler Paul Potts
and
Cambodia's murderous dictator, Pol Pot.
Just me, or anyone else ?

Ryan Rigby said...

Close to home there is some piling machinery in use with the name
M. K. Piling.

Everyday I see Mr. Kipling!

Anonymous said...

I always had this problem with 'Part-Time Visiting Lecturers' - I used to read 'Part-Time Viking Lecturers' instead. (I never quite decided whether they'd be actual Vikings who happened also to be lecturers part-time, or if it was more of a secret-identity thing...)

Sally the OT said...

You're all just having difficulties with your visual closure.

Unknown said...

not sure if you're still checking comments but this latest B3ta post looks like it was inspired by you...http://www.b3tards.com/u/d81a83cf6d5a93144ba7/mugababez.jpg

Anonymous said...

Just spotted this and thought of you Dave:

http://www.b3ta.com/board/8352193

Unknown said...

There's always Colley's Supper Rooms in Reading.

Everyone, but everyone, thinks that says Super Rooms the first time they see it.

Anonymous said...

I often see loaves of bread on supermarket shelves and mis-read "Thick Cu*t"

Anonymous said...

Slightly off topic here but if you go back a few years and look up Civil Engineering in the Yellow Pages it says: "See boring"

I laughed by bottom off when I first noticed that. Unfortunately now, they've removed it :o(