Oh, Baby, Baby.

    Last night, around 11:30 PM, I sat in my living room and waited for my writing muse to show up. I waited about 30 minutes then decided she wasn't coming, so I went to bed.
     My husband had already gone to bed but was leaning against the backboard, reading a book. Right now he is reading "How Not To Be Wrong," - (such a promising title). The book is by Jordan Ellenbery and it's about the power of mathematical thinking.
     So as I am getting ready for bed, Philip says "I love this book!" Mind you, he never even looked up from it's pages.
     "Why?" I asked.
     "It explains mathematical theories in an easy to understand way," he said.
     As I climbed under the covers, he went on to tell me how this teenage girl went to a Target in Minnesota and bought unscented lotion, cotton balls and mineral supplements. Using this information, the folks at Target and their associates at Guest Marketing Analytics started sending the girl coupons for baby gear.
    I'm laying there listening to him go on about how they got it so wrong with their super powered algorithms! And how all of this had caused a real problem.
   When he stopped talking for a minute I said "Well? What? Was she pregnant?"
And he said "YES! She was pregnant! And it caused a lot of problems because her father saw those coupons coming to her in the mail. He was furious that Target knew about her pregnancy before him!"
     I was totally amazed that the geniuses at Target had nailed that one so totally. Then Phil added that the algorithms make mistakes, a lot of mistakes!
    I was lying there totally stunned and amazed with Target and floated off to dreamland.


* Tomorrow, I hope to start a series of stories on my travels with my husband this past summer.