Saturday, April 21, 2012

Adventures in Real-time Processing


I was listening with half an ear  to a newscast about tomorrow’s Presidential elections in France, and thought I heard the announcer say

Tout cela sur fond d’intérrogation, que feront les imbéciles, qui n’ont peut-être jamais été aussi nombreux -- entre vingt-cinq et trente pour cent du corps électoral.

I thought:  Wow!  They’re having the same problem in France that we’re having here!  But then reflected, it is unlikely they would put the matter with such candor.   Enough of an echo of the sentence just heard  remained in short-term memory -- not crystal-clear like an actual recording, but  so to speak  en filigrane -- that I was able to replay it in my head  and deduce that what had actually been said was not les imbéciles  but les indécis.

I liked it better the first time.

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