Behind the Ironic Column

There’s a lot of talk these days about convergence — the movement of systems and processes toward some kind of unity or amalgamation.  I was recently at a meeting of computer professionals where we had several sessions that talked about the development of new tools and programs that are gradually moving toward a common platform.  So convergence is in the air.

This afternoon, on my walk through downtown, I was reminded of a different kind of convergence.  The coming together of two disparate things that by some quirk are connected in one’s mind.  Long ago, but not exactly in a galaxy far away since I grew up in North Carolina, a state noted for low prices on cigarettes because tobacco was a major crop.  Prices aren’t that low now, but they were when I was a teenager. 

As I walked by one of the downtown shops, I saw a sign in the window for a pack of cigarettes — of the same kind my parents used to smoke — and the ones they sent me to the stores to get.  One pack is now over $5, which is just astounding to me.  They were something around $.30 a pack back then.  The other thing that was around $.30 — although I can’t remember it exactly — was a gallon of gasoline. 

So if the winds of convergence are blowing, it may be that our $4.00 a gallon gas will go on up to meet the already established price of a pack of cigarettes….

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