Arguing Nonsense

I see all sorts of things being argued on the web:

  • This is this,
  • This is not this,
  • Yes, it is and here’s why,
  • No, it’s not, and here’s why,
  • There are no absolutes!

Which happens to be an absolute statement.

It’s hard not to get caught up.

I see it a lot among normal people.
It also seems to be something that I’m seeing more and more among Aspies.

I saw something today that raised my antennae.

I now live near St. Augustine Florida.
I grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—not in the suburbs around it, but right in the middle of it.

I have a picture of me, somewhere, sitting under the Liberty Bell.
That was of course, when you were allowed to do that—when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Here’s what I saw today:

A posting of St. George’s Street in St. Augustine with the caption:

A Picture of the Oldest Street in America.

And I thought, hmmm, doesn’t look like Elfreth’s Alley.

And my instinct, which thankfully I’ve learned to control, was to comment just that:
“It doesn’t look like Elfreth’s Alley.”

But I restrained myself, took a breath, and thought, “I’ll write an essay instead.”

I could have argued that St. George’s Street first officially appeared on Spanish maps as “Calle de San Jorge” during the 1790s.

And Elfreth’s Alley has existed since 1703.

And the poster could counter that St. Augustine was founded September 8, 1565.

And Philly not ‘til October 27, 1682.

And I could argue, yes but Philly has been part of America since July 4, 1776 and Florida not until March 3, 1845.

And the poster could argue, I didn’t say U.S.A., I said America.

But which America?
Choose from among these alternatives:

  • Calle Tacuba (Mexico City, Mexico) – 1520.
  • Bourbon Street (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA) –  1718
  • Calle de la Amargura (Puerto Rico) early 1500

And we could run around and fact check each other over and again, and it will still be a very nice picture that was posted, and I would have ruined the enjoyment of it for everyone who read my comment.

So here’s what I do when I come across something like this.

I stop and let it soak in.
I take a breath, because that Aspie thing happens where I want to correct what I believe to be an incorrect whatever.

I think about why they posted it. (In this case to share a nice picture.)

And, what my motive would be to correct it:

  • To avert a catastrophe, (Duck the ceiling is falling.)
  • To take advantage of a teaching opportunity, (Is this a young school kid or an adult?)
  • To show that I know more than them, (Might be true, but are you sure?)
  • To generally show off.

I took a while to master this. I’m still working on it.

In my kitchen we have a faucet to get water to the sink, and since it’s Florida and the pipes are in a concrete slab, that is constantly being cooled by the AC, it takes a full two to three minutes for the water to come out hot.

See how smart I am and how much I know!

So, unless you really need hot water and are willing to invest the two to three minutes waiting for it, turning the selector to hot water does the following:

  • Starts the water coming from the hot water heater to the faucet,
  • Which kicks on the hot water heater to replace the hot water on its way to the faucet,
  • Which lays in the cold pipe, since it never gets a chance to reach the faucet, and gets cold,
  • Wasting hot water and electricity, because the end result will always be only cold water at the faucet.

Got that?

So, I’m in the kitchen watching my wife rinse something off in the sink, with the selector turned fully in the hot water direction.
Knowing full well that the activity in which she is engaged, i.e., rinsing a glass prior to insertion into the dishwasher, will only receive cold water from the faucet, because she will not have the water turned on for the required two to three minutes to produce hot water, etc.

Should I:

  1. Tell her what I know,
  2. Ask her if she likes to waste hot water and electric,
  3. Ask her if she has a reasonable expectation that hot water is going to come out of that faucet in the limited time she has it on to rinse the glass,
  4. Calculate whether any of the above would produce in me a reasonable expectation that she would respond positively to any of my questions,
  5. Sit on my hands and shut up.

What do you think I’m going to do?

Written July 27 2026

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