Intercultural Communication

I had some trouble with my presentation at the conference of the National Council of Teachers of English in San Francisco due to the simple logistical problem of a wireless mouse that was too small for my nervous fingers. I plead Aspasia, either that or early onset dysfunctionality. I was okay once I gave it up and switched back to the keyboard, but when I made one of my cryptic remarks about mice in Orlando with more political influence than Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the middle of the presentation, somebody in the audience said “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I suppose they considered it to be criticaI of the governor of California, although the point was simply that in Orlando Walt Disney World is the political power. California and Anaheim have Disneyland, but it’s not quite the same where an entire region sort of owes its existence to a theme park.

I like Arnie. For a Republican, at least he seems to have some common sense. Everybody wants big cheerful guys to be their friends. I’m all about that, and I considered stopping and explaining the remark, but to me it seemed like it would be even more embarrassing to have somebody explain in the middle of a presentation that mice in Orlando was a reference to Walt Disney World. Would that be a credit to your information fluency? And I wouldn’t want to make the issue any more complex and contentious, because, after all, that one individual represented 20% of my audience.

Here’s thinking for you.

Iffy.