Not A Blog™

Here we have a frustrating phenomenon: someone not hearing you when you’re asking them to repeat themselves because you didn’t hear them. It collapses into a vicious cycle of repeated cyclical questions, each person thinking the other said something more substantial than “what” and trying to figure out just what that might be. After this decent into madness, both parties must weave their way back through the maze of questioning to get to the real heart of the matter, which was the statement that was initially spoken but not heard. Some of us never make it this far, giving up in exasperation to go do more important things.

This happened to me again just recently. Although I didn’t shout “Gah!” at the person, I was thinking it after we got the mess cleared up. It’s partially my fault too, of course, since apparently I’m not speaking loud enough when I ask for the initial repeat of information. The middle panel isn’t necessarily word for word (though the one I had two weeks ago was pretty close), but it’s a good approximation of the “Battle of the Whats” that I have at least two or three times a year. I would consider this one of the more awkward conversational situations, if only because every time it happens to me, I lose. I haven’t yet figured out how to emerge from this with decorum.

-Pulsar