This seems to be a time, especially in my country, where it is the fashion to hold opinions tightly. But now that I think of it, it may be a time when it is easy to see or hear opinions being expressed strongly while the basic reasonableness of people hasn't changed. Two different issues have been getting more wishy-washy in my mind. I have read there is a tendency for humans to like certainty and to prefer to avoid uncertainty. That is true for me: I like to feel that I know what I am doing and have already weighed the sides to a question.
So, the recent article by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel called "Why I Hope to Die at 75" clicked when I read it. It meshed with the book by Atul Gawande called "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End". It clicked with statistics about the cost to society of the last six months of life. When I learned that Dr. Emanuel is 57 years old now, I did the typical sneer and said to myself that I would wait until he is 74 or 75 and see what he says then. But a key fact was that I hadn't read his article. Now I have and I am way more wishy-washy. I can actually feel myself firming up in favor of the man's position, which is subtle, well-thought-out and well put.
That sort of mental movement has not occurred with my reading about the movement against the type font called "Comic Sans". I see there are web sites called "You Are a Comic Sans Criminal" and "There Is Help Available for People Like You Who Use Comic Sans". I wrote this blog post four years ago explaining that a friend who has had difficulty reading at times in her life told me that she found the font I use for this blog to be especially readable.
I don't doubt that some people are sensitive to the font. I have not read "Just My Type", one of several books on font design and typography. I don't think it would take me long to get used to nearly any type face. I did have one idea for a font design. My notion is that if the lettters are tall and skinny enough, they will be difficult to read. Why would anyone want such a font when there are 622 in the basic version of Microsoft Word? Not my problem.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
