I saw it as a last straw thing, and maybe a misunderstanding as well.

I can't see how the "macho" remark really adds up. Thee are plenty of women around who are every bit as liable to erupt.

Getting back to Pinetop Slim's appropriate bit of thread drift, and the ambiguity I remarked upon in the thread title, I suppose the way we express the difference is that if we say "The last thing I want to read" it means you don't wan tot read it, whereas "the thing I want to read last" means you do want to read it.

I think the thing I might want to read last could well be a poem I just posted on another thread.

And the related question is, what is the thing I would least like to be the last thing I said or wrote to a friend. And that is a whole other kettle of fish.