I love gadgets… as a matter of fact, you probably don’t know it, but my middle name is Gadget. You might also ignore that this word is (probably) a derivation from the French word “gâchette” (trigger).
I just remembered that “gachette” rhymes with “braguette” (a trouser fly) and one of my (shady) friends liked the word so much that he called his pooch “braguette”. The dog nevertheless wore his name with pride. But I am digressing…
Gadgets are the new toys of the modern era. They are very intelligent; you can talk to them and ask them to perform a task. You will never hear any recriminations… they will obey you like a faithful mutt, and if they could (I know that it is coming) they would wag their tails. You don’t even have to raise your voice. The only prerequisite is to speak distinctly.
And even if you speak with a pronounced foreign accent, they still will understand you and execute your command. Humans, by the way, are not as smart as these gizmos… For instance, my wife has to repeat a command about 3 times before I can grab its meaning. A gadget gets it on the first try. This clearly demonstrates how much smarter than us these things are.
But gadgets, like some beloved pets, have a brief life span. Within a few short years, they become obsolete and fall out of favor. When you buy a gadget, you tend to forget that there are things called “upgrades” lurking in the shadow. These party-poopers usually show up a few days or a few weeks after you have taken your new toy home. This also means that after 2 years max you won’t be able to resist the lure of a new model and will jilt the old one for a new one. In other words, a gadget has the lifespan of a Hollywood romance… maybe a little more.
Talking about gadgets…
“My wife has an electric blender, electric toaster, and electric bread maker. She said, “There are too many gadgets and no place to sit down!” So, I bought her an electric chair.” — Red Skelton
Even the electric chair (or the guillotine) is now obsolete even though they had a nice run as gadgets. But despite their usefulness, the public abandoned them. Like you fell out of love with the transistor radio, the pager, the Walkman, the iPod, the DVD, the BlackBerry, and the early bulky mobile telephone (with an antenna) that I used for work.
But I still love gadgets, no matter how short our love stories have been or will be.
“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Alain