14 September 2007  A funny story  Today I ran into one of my
neighbors from down the street whom I hadn't seen in a long
time. Years ago we used to ride the bus together on the way home
from work. At that time he was working for a company that was
developing some software for the State Department to track down
unwanted aliens, although what exactly my neighbor did wasn't
clear (he now works as a security guard somewhere else).  Our
encounter today reminded me of the day when we were sitting next
to each other on the bus and he was telling me about his
company. Our mutual misunderstanding of words resulted in the
following conversation (this was years before 9/11).  He: The
software will help the immigration guys keep the terrorists out.
Me: Why do they want to keep the tourists out? He (perturbed):
Why would you want terrorists in our country? Me (puzzled):
What's wrong with tourists? He (frustrated): Don't you know what
a terrorist is? Me (annoyed): Of course I know what a tourist
is!  Eventually, we sorted