Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

Valentine:

Huh?  I don't get it.

Evan:

Nope, either way you don't know if you're getting a *smart* person, or a *dumb*
person.

What about Stats?  I *know* how to use them!  And I *did*!

OK.

No.  Of smart people, only like 10% care about getting A's (usually the
borderline smart people), because the other 90% realize that A's are
meaningless.  I am in the "other 90%" most of the time.

No.  More like 50 or 60% of dummies get A's because of easier schooling,
compensation for retardation, and desperation to "prove" themselves able.  If
you ain't got the standardized test scores, you gotta FUDGE your way into
college with "grades", especially A's, extracurriculars, clubs, sports, music,
community service, church groups, schtich, cheerleading, eating your own sh.t,
or whatever else you need to make yourself "stand out" from the nomalcy that
you are.  Take American Idol...95% of the people with the costumes and the
makeup and the flamboyance and the pets and the relatives and the attitudes and
the skateboards and the impersonations and the duets and the wild hairdoos and
everything else SUCK.  Whereas 95% of the people who are "real" move on.
Mediocrity always tries to cover itself up with gimmicks.  Grades and
extracurricular activites and wealth and celebrity are the GIMMICKS that dumbos
use to move up in life.  If only we all had Simon Cowell judging who is
qualified and who is not for job apps, & sh.t.

I don't know how to statisticize it, but whatever.  OK, 35%.

OK, if 10% of all smart people get A's, and 50 or 60% of dumbos do, then *more*
smart people don't get A's than do.  However, *more* dumbos get A's than don't.

Therefore, out of the group of people who *don't* get A's, you're more likely
to find the smart peeps.

It's COMMON SENSE.

Not true.  It depends on the courses you take and where you go to college.  My
school *hardly* ever gives out A's.  With minimal work, I'm still up in the
90th percentile somewhere, though, gradeswise, where the average, I've learnt,
is 2.4-ish.

Exactly.  But when dinero is involved, *then* I will work to my full ability.
It's obvious to others of intelligence.

Mostly B's with a handfull of A's and a handfull of C's.  Actually, I think
I've had 5 or 6 A's and only 4 or 5 C's.  So, I'm still ahead.

Huh?

I'm sure they will.  I'll encourage it.

} On 24 Jan 2004 00:21:53 GMT, de781@aol.com (DE781) wrote:
}
}>Evan:
}>
}>>
}>>Ah, but the question is: How will you convince someone that you can so
}>>that they know that they can count on you enough to give you work that
}>>actually matters?
}>
}>I sure have a way with convincing people *online* that I'm interesting.  What
}>makes you think it's any different offline?
}
} Before you pop your arm out of the socket patting yourself on the
} back, think about how traffic slows down so people can gawk at a bad
} accident.  The "interest" in you is more like "Hey! Look!  The jaws of
} life!".

Ain't that the truth.

On the Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) westbound in Maryland (the Outer
Loop, going counter-clockwise (BrE: "anticlockwise") around (and, for a
bit over the Potomac, through) the District of Columbia, there is a
distinct jog in the road (you may be able to see it on your free State
Farm road atlas map of Washington, D.C.) around the Washington Temple of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (referred to by some
locally as The Mormon Temple).  Approaching it from the east, the spires
seem to rise out of the road, only to be blocked by several bridges, then
the complete temple again in all its glory.  On one of the middle bridges,
pranksters fairly regularly (since the temple was built) paint in large
block letters "SURRENDER DOROTHY".  (Maybe pictures of it are googlable.)  
Because it is visible for only a matter of seconds, if that, people tend
to slam on their brakes, generally paralyzing traffic during rush hour.  
Word has it that for years now they have had a special crew on alert to
paint out the "SURRENDER DOROTHY" as soon as it is reported in the
morning, so as to keep the traffic moving as safely as possible.  Even in
between times, the sixteen rectangles are plainly visible to those who
look for them.

The temple is sort of unique in not having windows, except for the stained
glass in a narrow column in the stairwells at either end.  Light gets in
from the outside through the translucent marble that covers the temple.  
Inside it's pretty much nothing like the cathedral that might be imagined
from the outside, having something like seven floors for various uses from
baptisms in the huge font in the basement to locker rooms on the entrance
floor to marriage-ceremony rooms upstairs and so on until you get to the
tabernacle (of choir fame).  They have their own government-certified
police and fire departments, and outsiders aren't welcome, even for
weddings.  And it's not all that easy even for a card-carrying Mormon to
get in.  I hear they ripped up all the carpets and replaced them shortly
after I was in there.

As metaphor for alt.usage.english, it's probably flawed; but they could
do worse than to name the bridge after Young Joey.

Coop:

There's no such thing as bad publicity.

"Better to be remembered as a weirdo than to be forgotten"--The smartest woman
in the history of the universe, Michael Jackson.