Steven Helmer Publications

Our bathroom sink is clogged and, before work, I stopped at Wal-mart to pick up something to unclog it (it's the only store open that early in the morning). This was a last-second decision and, since I didn't want my wife to do the same, I sent her a text from Wal-mart's parking lot to let her know. After getting to the office, I checked my phone to see if she replied and was surprised by this message: At first, I was a little confused because I couldn't figure out why my wife was driving (my youngest daughter didn't have to be at school yet) or why she would text me to let me know that when she is opposed to texting and driving. Then, I realized the message came from my phone. She apparently replied to me while I was driving and my car decided to reply back to let her know I was too busy driving to answer her. This was a complete surprise to me. I've never seen it do that and never knew it could. On the surface, this is really cool. But, as...

I was washing silverware a couple nights ago and, for some weird reason, I had a classic cartoon scene pop in my head. It was the one with Mickey and Donald eating corn like a typewriter. As I thought about this scene (and laughed to myself a bit), I began to wonder about something. How long until this cartoon loses all meaning? With computers, smart phones, etc. being the new norm, it's not as though kids are exposed to typewriters all that often (if at all). Fortunately, my daughters still get the joke. But, I can't help but wonder if my grandchildren will. We could legitimately be a generation away from this cartoon making no sense.