Flipping through the morning news programs, we flashed across a channel displaying a woodland background and a Windows error message in the middle of the screen. I figured it was one of the computer-user cable-channel programs, but we weren’t nearly high enough up the dial.

Me: What was that?
Her: Oh, that’s the funny thing.

She flipped back down to Channel 8, the local public service channel that basically plays classic music and cycles through neighborhood civic announcements laid over generic pictures of the outdoors.

But there were no civic reminders on the screen.

Actually that’s not true; there was a very significant reminder up on the screen — I’m just fairly certain it wasn’t intentional:

Windows has updated your clock as a result of daylight savings time. Please verify that your new clock settings are correct.

OK?

As I took it in, the Channel 8 computer’s wallpaper switching program changed the background picture behind the error message to a snowy woodland.