For the second time in a day, I found myself using a simple tool (knife blade, tweezers) to reach inside an electronic gadget that the owner (father in law, daughter) could not fix alone. I was reminded once again of the anecdote in which Robert Benchley is on a movie set, suspended in a tangle of wires between two telephone poles. Waiting for the next shot to be set up, Benchley famously called down to his wife Gertrude, "Remember how good at Latin I was in school?" "Yes," she said. "Well," Benchley said, "Look where it got me."

I also was good in several high school subjects, and maybe being good enough in high school is good enough for marriage and parentage. I certainly hope so, because the gadgets keep on being made and purchased for the use of those who do not well understand them. If my aging relatives and my own children are not electrocuted, it will be because I am well enough trained in the humanities to take that risk myself.