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.
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ReplyDeleteI fully expect you've just infected my brain with the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
Not me - I still think of Mugabe backwards.
ReplyDeleteFor those that still don't realise -
e ba gum
But hey I'm weird.
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!
ReplyDeleteWhenever I hear the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki mentioned on the radio, it always makes me think of "Wacky Backy". Childish, but there you go.
ReplyDeletei 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...
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeletejames 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..."
ReplyDeleteBritains's Got Talent's, ex phone salesman and opera warbler Paul Potts
ReplyDeleteand
Cambodia's murderous dictator, Pol Pot.
Just me, or anyone else ?
Close to home there is some piling machinery in use with the name
ReplyDeleteM. K. Piling.
Everyday I see Mr. Kipling!
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...)
ReplyDeleteYou're all just having difficulties with your visual closure.
ReplyDeletenot 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
ReplyDeleteJust spotted this and thought of you Dave:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.b3ta.com/board/8352193
There's always Colley's Supper Rooms in Reading.
ReplyDeleteEveryone, but everyone, thinks that says Super Rooms the first time they see it.
I often see loaves of bread on supermarket shelves and mis-read "Thick Cu*t"
ReplyDeleteSlightly off topic here but if you go back a few years and look up Civil Engineering in the Yellow Pages it says: "See boring"
ReplyDeleteI laughed by bottom off when I first noticed that. Unfortunately now, they've removed it :o(