The Thumbs

A recent email stymied me with its subject heading that read, "Please help! Missing Thumb Drive." I want to help, I thought, but how? Are they calling for donations toward protheses? What can we actually do for those among us who are missing thumbs? And really, how many people share this affliction? Then I opened the email and learned that some poor soul has lost all her dissertation data on one of those little flash drive deals. She left it in a computer at the library. Another bad problem with no good solution. In any case, my miscue reminded me of the time I read the headline, "Falling Crane Kills Pedestrian," and later asked some pals, "What are the chances that a crane would die mid air, fall from the sky and kill some poor innocent below?" Come to find out, it was a vehicle that fell off a skyscraper, not a bird. So I guess the point of all this is, there's always another side to every story. The other side is rarely any better, it's just different.