This, not That

 Excerpted from Broadsides from the other orders:  a book of bugs by Sue Hubbell, ©1993:  

My first husband is an electrical engineer, and it was he who made me suspect that I was not going to be comfortable in these times, although he certainly had no intention of making me think so that day back in 1957, when he was explaining to me the difference between analog (the comparative, the sweep of a clock's hand, figure and ground, this but maybe partly that, too) and digital (yes or no; one, two; off, on; this, not that).  After he had done so he said, "And the future is digital," and I realized with one of those flashes of understanding that come now and again that I was going to be analog in a digital world.

And that reminded me of this: