Apple

Is Apple's sense of sleek, discreet design a danger to the elderly?

It seems 83-year-old Evelyn Paswall believes it is. For she is suing Apple for $1 million after passing into the wall of glass that is an Apple store door.

I am grateful to CBS New York for bringing forth this difficult news of such a grim spectacle. For it seems Passwall simply didn't see the glass doors at the Apple store in Manhasset, Long Island, and ended up breaking her nose after the impact.

One surely doesn't have to be 83 years old in order to walk into glass. It has happened to me, as surely as it must have happened to you. Sometimes, one loses concentration and, before one realizes it, a bump on one's forehead (or worse) ensues.

However, Paswall's attorney claims that it's simply far too hard to see Apple's sleekness. Derek T. Smith was quoted by CBS News York as saying: "Apple wants to be cool and modern and have the type of architecture that would appeal to the tech crowd, but on the other hand, they have to appreciate the danger that this high-tech modern architecture poses to some people."

It is true that high-tech modern architecture isn't always easy on the eye. But it doesn't usually affect the nose in the way that it allegedly affected Paswall's. She is demanding $75,000 in medical expenses and the remainder in negligence charges.

However, she claims she has wonderful eyesight. Indeed, she told the New York Post: "I may be elderly, but I'm very active, and I'm still driving too!"

How difficult it would be for even Solomon to drive justice into these charges. The Manhasset store, according to MacRumors, had white markings on the glass in order to assist anyone -- even the more active -- in seeing that they are about to enjoy an encounter with glass.

And yet in litigious America people win lawsuits when their coffee is too hot. So one imagines that Paswell might have a passable chance of achieving some level of compensation.

She isn't the first person ever to walk into a piece of Apple glass, as the 2010 video I have embedded shows. However, she might well be the first who believes that her encounter with transparent greatness is worth $1 million.