A sticky sentence

The second principle of sticky ideas, in the Heath Brothers' fine book, Made to Stick, is Unexpectedness. "We need to violate people's expectations," they say. It is not their intention to make this next assertion, but it is mine: you can violate people's expectations with a single sentence. My five-year-old grandson did it recently in a supermarket parking lot.

He hadn't had any breakfast or lunch, and we were in the middle of grocery shopping about 1 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. Adam wanted to start eating the fresh pizza we had picked up in the deli department. I said no. He asked again at the checkout counter. I said no. On the way to the car, he asked if he could eat a slice on the way home. Again I said no. As I started to back out of the parking space, his stomach growled, and he said:

"I just heard myself starving."

Grammy and I laughed so hard I had to stop the car. I've repeated that sentence to lots of people, and they in turn have repeated it. Expectations are violated every time.