Flashes of Panic

(I could probably just say, “icon,” but I like the word “glyph.”)

While I wait for a large file to copy (twice,) I find myself looking at the precision screwdriver set I was using to install a salvaged hard disk. Not for the first time, I notice how irregularly the slots are labeled. The flat-head section contains a sort of flat-head icon (a circle with a dash inside, not unlike a θ as long as the crossbar doesn’t touch the circle) with the size above in millimeters (abbreviated m/m, not mm.) The phillips section has no icons or sizes, but numbers: NO.00, NO.0, NO.1. Next in that row is the pointy AWL… then…

The tool is like one of the screwdrivers sawed off at the base, with just a little stub of shaft and no business end whatever. It’s not magnetic. And the icon looks like an alarm clock set to 3:00, with flames (apparently?) coming from the top, but no bells. And there’s a big X printed over the icon.

This is supposed to transcend language, I suppose, but instead it’s more of a mystery than any translation puzzle.

Now Playing: Lost In The Plot by The Dears