Thorns in Our Side, by Michael Pakaluk

It happens almost without fail that when I try to insert an old-style USB plug into a socket for it, I get it the wrong way.  Moreover, when I say to myself, “I am probably inserting it the wrong way once again. Therefore, this time I will reverse what I intended to do,” and then flip it, I invariably discover that I did have it the right way, and that in trying to correct myself I made it wrong again.

But how can this be?  Can the universe really be so designed, that I am meant to encounter a contradiction every time I try to plug in an old-style USB?  Is the contradiction so strongly woven into reality that – like the angel of death in the old tale – when you’ve thought you’ve avoided it, it has captured you, nonetheless?

I’ve often been tempted to write a column on this contradiction. In the past, I dismissed the idea, because it seemed silly.  But then yesterday a friend wrote to complain, out of the blue and unprompted: “Every time I’m tempted to play Lotto I recall how often, when I plug a USB cord into one of those adapters, I plug it in wrong.”  Maybe it’s not just me. …

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