Overheard, underheard and misheard absurdities

We've all walked in on a conversation at an inopportune moment, catching a bizarre phrase or sentence out of context. Or maybe we've misheard something that made us laugh.

For instance, at the writing conference I attended in October, I was walking in a group of people all headed for the door to go to the next session and I heard, "She's a cow," said in the most matter of fact tone. I figured out that what she really said was, "She's at Cal." My version was funnier because it was so out of context.

A friend has been adopted by a homeless rooster that wandered into his yard one day and never left. I knew this, yet I didn't know he'd named it. I walked into the room to hear him talking to someone about Chicken Butt.

And kudos to a fellow staff writer, who had just been advised to trick his computer into doing what he wanted. Without skipping a beat, he said, "Computer, look, your shoe's untied." That wasn't half-heard, but it made me chuckle.

I'm seriously considering running a column for people to post their half-heard and misheard snatches of conversation. Go ahead and place your affirmative vote for such a column by adding a misheard or half-heard funny snippet to this post.

And I need to name said column. Suggestions welcome.

What does this have to do with writing or science fiction? Writer's need to be more than people watchers. We should be picking up dialog ideas, too.

In my inbox this week was an email directing me to this article on 15 Inventions Inspired by Science Fiction. See what you think and leave a comment there. Feel free to say Ann Wilkes at SFOO sent you. Unless of course you want to leave a nasty comment.

As I may have said before, I'm now running three interview per month now, with an occasional fourth. This Friday, you'll meet M.H. Bonham, author of Howling Dead, who will give us a sort of sf convention survival guide.












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