"Yes,
We
Have No
Bananas."
I sang airily
to a twenty-year-old, thinking
she'd know the words were lyrics from a famous old song.
A comic example of a confusing message.
Funny to me. Puzzling to her.
After a minute,
she nodded
weakly
at
me.
Yes,
she
got it.
But the song
didn't ring a bell.
I sputtered an explanation.
"It's a song from the '20s with muddled messaging,
just like the baffling political slogans we hear
and speeches that tell us tall tales."
She didn't get it.
"Yes means no
and no
means
yes!"
