Illustrative of an attempt at communication between me and my mother:

Illustrative of an attempt at communication between me and my mother:

Preface: There've been all kinds of printer problems, here, and we are on the third printer in not quite that many years. My mom likes having one that prints and copies and faxes, so she keeps getting those. I haven't tried using the newest one, which is less than a month old, and I didn't know if my mom had tried, or if it had worked. So I tried asking a yes/no question. My mom does not do yes/no questions.

Please enjoy the following transcript:

Have you printed anything with the printer?
I copied something with the printer.
Ok, but have you printed anything with it?
I told you, I copied something with the printer.
Ok, but the print function and the copy function aren't the same.
The printer's working.
So you printed something with it?
I copied something. I haven't printed anything with my laptop.
Have you printed anything with your desktop?
It doesn't work with the desktop.
So you haven't printed anything, then.
Yes, I did. I copied something with it. The printer's working.

I can't even.