Not one of these letters, all written by women, acknowledged that Turner committed rape, but rather called it a "misunderstanding" and a "mistake in drinking excessively".
Valentine Restaurant in Southall said the mix-up was a misunderstanding rather than a comment on the race of the customer, because "ppl" was its shorthand for "milk".
Focusing on tax returns or penalties that will stick, even if challenged in court, would reduce complaints from taxpayers who say they were trying to obey the complex tax law and owe more only because of a misunderstanding rather than a calculated plan.
A Home Office study on rape published in 1999 quotes a judge as saying: "I wonder whether the serious type of rape of a stranger in a public place or whatever at night should not be a rather separate offence than a misunderstanding between two people who know each other".The Home Office's review committee rejected this view unanimously.
Ahmad said she was initially "truly disappointed" with United and that the airline was dismissive of her claims, boiling them down to a misunderstanding rather than an act of discrimination.
Singled out as being exceptionally well done was Klein's Los Angeles Times article "America is not a Hamburger", which described the American attempt to re-brand itself by believing that the escalating anti-Americanism was a misunderstanding rather than a reaction to American policy directions.
Honking is also being used to correct a driver's mistake, but it can be offensive too, if it turns out to be a misunderstanding, rather than a real fault.
His conclusion, torturously arrived at and always held without final resolution, like the suspended chords in a Joni Mitchell song, was basically this: Hospitality is not a set of rules followed by participants, but, rather, a stream of misunderstandings whose proof of purchase is the shared uncertainty it imposes on both sides.
Author response: Actually, I think a rather common misunderstanding is involved here.
We know the guy is violent, but the thing that set his conflict with Jesse in motion –his ostensible abuse of his wife – still appears to have been a misunderstanding over some rather intense sexual proclivities, something he tries to explain to his son in one of the most awkward conversations this side of Freaks and Geeks.
