Marcy: I’m being subliminally messaged.
Tom: What do you mean?
Marcy: I had a craving for chicken strips. I never want chicken strips. Something made me want them.
Tom: It’s just a fluke.
Marcy: No. I was watching TV, and suddenly I wanted them. One second I wasn’t hungry, and the next second I was dying for chicken strips with honey-barbeque-mustard sauce. But there were no chicken strips on TV. It was a subliminal message.
Tom: You probably saw something that looked like a chicken strip, and it made you think of them, that’s all.
Marcy: No, it felt purposeful. Like I’d downloaded some kind of instructions. It’s not just the TV that’s doing it, either. Yesterday I was downtown and I had an urge to go buy pants. Not to try on pants, or have new pants, but specifically to buy them. There’s something going on.
Tom: How could a subliminal message come to you outside? On the TV, maybe. Maybe even your computer. But on the street?
Marcy: There’s all kinds of advertising outside. Signs, billboards, posters. It could have been anything. And you’re so right about the computer. This morning I was on my computer and I suddenly wanted to refinance my mortgage. I don’t have a mortgage.
Tom: Can we talk about this later? It just hit me. I need to go get a degree in criminal justice.