"I hope you take this the way it is intended, but, you'd make a good dyke."

Yes, yes, I would. I have the whole "who the F cares about clothes" vibe. Makeup and I don't get along, but I know the origins of that one. Though, let's be real, that's not really what being a dyke is actually about. Yet, I wholehearted agree I would, except that my attraction to women sexually is close enough to zero to be considered zero.

The comment, though, had me heading down the rabbit hole of "Is the word dyke offensive?" It has been reclaimed by the LGBTQ+++++++ community, so no, but, as always, context matters. Someone intending the word as a slur is offensive. Someone using the word as a term of endearment is not offensive. Like a lot of words.

And the etymology of the word? FASCINATING. Go read it.

The thing that gets me about Covid is that 3-5 day incubation period between catching covid, and showing symptoms. Sure, Covid isn't a zombie virus that has a 28 day incubation period, which is good. I can only imagine how sucky we would be as a culture and society and race if Covid had a 28 day incubation period. We would have so many more deaths.

Anyway, friend caught covid. I had had dinner at his place last Tuesday evening, the day he was feeling off. At the end of dinner when we were all sitting around talking, as we often do, he commented he had a shooting pain up the back of his neck, similar to when he had Covid six weeks ago. "It's not Covid, I just had it," he said. "You can't build immunity to something that changes every month," I responded. I then left in a hurry, thinking flu, RSV, Covid, a cold, pick one, any one, they all suck. Two days later he was testing positive for Covid. I am sad for my friend. Covid sucks.

Through various and assorted internet consumptions, biases that have come into my awareness again today:

The Mandela Effect

The Mandela effect is the situation where a large number of people believe that an event occurred, when it, in fact, did not. It is the large-number-of-people version of the false memory phenomenon:

In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not actually happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source misattribution have been suggested to be several mechanisms underlying a variety of types of false memory.

There are times when I look back on what I've written and the phrasing of my words just plain catch me off guard. Like, who speaks like that?

Last week, a coworker asked for some data, and I sent it to her. I included a note, "LMK if fields are missing that you need."

"Let me know if fields are missing that you need." Technically, correct grammar. Subjectively, not particular clear or venacular.

"Let me know if fields that you need are missing." The part "that you need" goes with the fields, so should be before the verb there, though the "that" phrase applies to the fields even when placed at the end.

It is just weird, though.

Another one that rather hit me was a response to a tweet about an earthquake in New Zealand. I responded, "I hope everyone is unhurt!" Everyone else responded with, "I hope no one is hurt!" The author of the original tweet noted my unusual speech pattern.