On this day in 1968, Pope Paul IV, in the encyclical Humanae Vitae reaffirmed the Roman Catholic ban on artificial contraception. Don’t worry, people, this isn’t going to be a post about Catholicism, or birth control, or even religion. I’m not above link-baiting. But not even I’m that desperate. And in this case, I know absolutely nothing of substance about any of the above issues.
Indeed, this is a post about ignorance. So here goes. Of all of the massive gaps in my knowledge base, my comical lack of familiarity with religion yawns the widest. How wide? Well, okay, since you asked…when I was in college, I went to visit a good friend whose significant other at the time has since gone on to become a world-renowned journalist and adviser to aspiring presidents. One evening, we played what I called the Name Game — which they called Ataturk.
The game, whatever it’s called, goes like this: participants form teams (Usually two players to a team, in my experience.); each player writes a set number (10, 15, 20, whatever, that’s not really the point of the story, okay?) of names on pieces of paper (You should recycle — think globally, act locally.); the players fold their papers in half or quarters or whatever (Seriously, stop with the nit-picking about details.); the players toss their folded papers into a hat (A bowl works, too, I guess.); and then one member of the team pulls names from the hat and gives clues to his or her partner, who tries to guess the name, for a set amount of time (I’ve always had the turns last a minute. But ymmv.); each time the guesser guesses a name, within the allotted amount of time, the giver of clues pulls another name from the hat (Or bowl. Jerk.); the team gets as many points as the guesser guesses names.
So, if I was playing with you, and I picked the name “Eric Rauchway” out of the hat, I’d give these clues: “He’s a renowned US historian. He works at UC Davis. He’s written brilliantly about the Progressive Era, the McKinley assassination (I should have done that one first, I know.), globalization, and, most recently, the New Deal. He has a crappy blog. But it’s not his fault. His original co-blogger is a hack. He’s devastatingly handsome. He’s generous of spirit and kind to animals. And he may some day sit on the committee that determines if I become a full professor.” And if you didn’t shout “Eric Rauchway” some time before then, well, then, in addition to being a picker of nits and a jerk, you’re the ignorant one.
Anyway, on the night in question, I was neither the best nor the worst player. And given that I was playing with a soon-to-be-famous journalist, a soon-to-be-famous doctor, and some other dude (I honestly can’t remember who else was there. But I’m totally confident that he’s now at the top of his field, whatever that might be.), and also given that I’m kind of dumb, I wasn’t that bummed about my performance. Until, that is, I pulled the name “Pontius Pilate” and had no idea who that was. For which hole in my omniscience, the soon-to-be famous journalist/confidante to a future president mocked me mercilessly. I mean, she just couldn’t stop herself from being slack-jawed with awe that a rube like me could walk upright — even though she hadn’t known who Joe Charboneau, or some such person, was. Looking back, she was probably right. It was pretty stunning that a nineteen-year-old pseudo intellectual didn’t know that Pontius Pilate was the founder of the nation’s most important pen company. Rim shot! And again! I’ll be here all week.
Seriously, though, about what topic are you most ignorant? And has your ignorance caused you some serious embarrassment in the past? Spill. It’s okay, I promise not to make fun of you or tell anyone that you’re even dumber than me.
72 comments
July 30, 2008 at 12:10 am
Jeremy Young
English literature after Shakespeare.
Seriously. It’s embarrassing. And part of the reason I don’t hang out with English majors.
July 30, 2008 at 12:15 am
andrew
Pontius Pilate was the founder of the nation’s most important pen company
Huh. I thought he worked in fitness.
July 30, 2008 at 12:49 am
bitchphd
Non-European history. I’m pretty damn crappy on anything in Europe that isn’t “1640 and after in England,” too. Well, and I’m pretty crappy at that, but I have yer basic outline down. I’m shit at upper mathematics and chemistry, but surprisingly good at biology. I don’t really know crap about economics. Or statistics.
Someone once said to me, “you have an amazingly limited vocabulary for someone so smart.”
July 30, 2008 at 3:31 am
ac
A friend of mine who was a freaking Rhodes Scholar did not know what the SS was. Two friends, who are Jewish, and I, who probably saw my first Nazi movie at age three and a half, just stared at her open-mouthed when she revealed this.
I didn’t know very much about analytic philosophy as recently as a couple of years ago, but I may have corrected this. Vaguely. Somewhat.
Sports is always my worst category for trivia purposes. I’m making no move to change this.
don’t really know crap about economics
In retrospect, Gender and Economics was one of the best classes I took in college, in terms of the relevance of the papers I read in it to my own life and politics I observed later. Thank you Deb/ra Bar/bezat, wherever you are.
July 30, 2008 at 4:39 am
Prof Burgos
Professional sports. (But that’s not at all embarrassing.)
NASCAR. (Ditto)
Philosophy. (Rather more embarrassing — but I can’t keep all those bloody Germans straight.)
All music recorded after about 1985, unless it has figured in a film score or they play it on XM-Kids. (Not at all embarrassing.)
Texting. (Ditto)
Celebutard news. (Very embarrassing, as it makes it difficult to carry on conversations on the west side of L.A.)
July 30, 2008 at 4:53 am
Sybil Vane
I’m shit on nonwestern history and pretty middling on American history. And drama is not a strong suit.
July 30, 2008 at 5:03 am
md 20/400
See, these are the things you save for qualifying orals. I knew someone whose orals (American History) had gone well until one prof lobbed in a question about John Phillip Sousa and XIXc popular culture. Totally unable to answer becasue he had no idea who Sousa was and this so messed him up that he failed that go-round.
July 30, 2008 at 5:47 am
Adam Roberts
He’s the dude behind Pilates? He must have made a mint on the back of that.
July 30, 2008 at 5:50 am
Adam Roberts
Also, he was played by David Bowie in the Scorcese Last Temptation film, and having watched that at an impressionable age I always picture Bowie when he’s mentioned.
Which suggests an alternative version of the game: same rules as outlined above, but the name you come up with must have been portrayed by David Bowie on screen. You know, Pontius Pilate; Tesla; The Goblin King. That kind of thing.
July 30, 2008 at 6:07 am
Michael Elliott
English royalty. I’m really pretty ignorant about who was when. The only one I can remember is Victoria, and it’s because she was named for a literary period.
July 30, 2008 at 6:14 am
PorJ
I’m amazingly ignorant about contemporary pop culture (actually, I’d say pop culture going back to about 1994). Does that count? Every time I see something on a pop star giving birth or checking into rehab or chanting Kabbala, the names mean *nothing* to me, like they could all be interchangeable or residents in my neighborhood, or crossed paths me somewhere. Amy Winehouse? Didn’t she sit next to me at cousin Norma’s wedding?
Pontius Pilate I remember from “Jesus Christ, Superstar” although I remember being confused that he was Pontius Pilot, the world’s first aeronaut and executioner of Jesus….
July 30, 2008 at 6:16 am
ari
So, I admit that when I was nineteen I didn’t know who Pontius Pilate was. And you people respond by allowing, grudgingly, that you occasionally struggle with quantum theory, or have trouble keeping track of the collected works of the Bronte sisters, or don’t know the difference between Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt, Jr, or rarely read US Weekly cover to cover as often as you’d like. And now Michael comes along to, gasp!, tell us that he can’t always keep the Henrys and Georges straight. Well, fine, see if I ever share again. I mean, I opened up to you. Sniff.
July 30, 2008 at 6:42 am
Michael Elliott
Fair enough, Ari, but the one memory I have like this has to do with class and geography. I grew up in the West (and not on its edge), but went to college in New England, where I kept hearing people talk about Martha’s Vineyard. For some time, I thought it was a literal vineyard — I dunno, to the extent I pictured it, I thought there must be some kind of resort or something connected to a Vineyard. I had no idea where. It probably wasn’t until the end of my college career, when I pulled out a map because we were driving to Cape Cod (for my first time) that I saw where it was.
July 30, 2008 at 6:50 am
PorJ
The problem may be we’re all ignorant about too much to really give you a list. For instance, I never read Moby Dick although it was assigned in both a high school and college course. In fact, I didn’t even really try. I’ve got probably dozens, if not hundreds, of unread classics that I’m (technically) ignorant of….
[But I did finally read it in my late 30s at the beach in Delaware on summer vacation. I couldn’t put it down]
[Also: I’m very, very ignorant of the Bible in general, and New Testament in particular. Maybe I’ll bring it to the beach next week]
July 30, 2008 at 7:10 am
kid bitzer
ari, that outcome was inevitable.
dostoevsky has this in the idiot: people play a parlor game after dinner, “tell us something you did once that you regret”.
everyone tells about minor faux pas that really make them look good. one poor schmuck plays the game honestly, describes a pretty shitty thing he did in the past, and the rest of the guests look at him like he’s a piece of dirt. and he’s surprised!
and you’re surprised!
myself, i wish i’d read more russian literature.
July 30, 2008 at 7:20 am
learnlotsbetty
Anytime a friend makes reference to something on the television machine, someone near me will lean over and explain what it means. Not embarrassing, but surely tedious for my friends.
I have a generally broad knowledge of a great deal of things that is also, of course, shallow. The worst part of my ignorance is when I state and vehemently defend absolute fact only to learn that I’m a) wrong and b) talking to a person who actually knows something about it. After about 704 of those conversations, you’d think I’d learn. Nope.
July 30, 2008 at 7:27 am
Clover88
When I was young, but old enough to know better, and we were on the beach at Santa Cruz, I looked out across the bay and saw that the landscape (of Monterey) on the other side was not hidden in the usual summer fog that day, and said to my mom, “Look, you can really see Japan so clear today!” “Um, honey,” she said sadly and a little shocked, “that’s Monterey.” Then a geography lesson ensued. I still feel the embarrassment.
July 30, 2008 at 7:51 am
Q
OK, here’s something I think is pretty embarrassing:
Although I’ve been a history buff since I was in middle school, I was terrible at geography for a long time. For some reason, I nearly always assumed any country I had never heard of (there were more than a few) was in Africa. In fact, I remember making comments in my lifetime about both Burma AND Myanmar being African countries. I also distinctly recall responding to a question about the situation in East Timor a few years back with some comment about African warlords. I was definitely ripped by my friends for that one. Incidentally, the episode also revealed one of my other weaknesses of the time, which was an extremely spotty record on tracking current events. Fortunately in college I got really interested in African history and I nailed down the geography pretty well. Now I attribute any unknown countries to South East Asia.
I’ve grown a bit cagier as I’ve aged. Developing more breadth, though little more depth in my knowledge base, I’ve become fantastically awesome at making one smart sounding comment about practically any topic. Just don’t ask me any follow up questions. Of course, if you do, I’ll deftly change the subject and hopefully no one will be the wiser. I’m starting to get the feeling that graduate school will make me even better at this.
July 30, 2008 at 8:15 am
Fats Durston
Q: hee hee.
It didn’t dawn on me until early high school that the “Naughtsies,” whom so many people talked about, and the Nazis (“Nazzies” in my head voice) whom I read so much about, were one and the same.
But at least I know who !!! (no relation to ? of ? and the Mysterians) and The Gossip and United State of Electronica are, you pop-ignoramii.*
*Hmmm. Latin plurals seem also to be an ignorant spot.
July 30, 2008 at 8:18 am
L
I was 18 before I understood what homosexuality was. I blame it on my Catholic upbringing. Actually, that should have helped.
July 30, 2008 at 8:25 am
Vance Maverick
Back in Usenet days, the canonical reference for this was the game of “Humilation” in Small World. I doubt Lodge invented it. As kid bitzer says, someone in the book loses, badly, by playing too honestly (revealing he hasn’t read Hamlet).
I’m very sensitive to embarrassment on this score. So I’m coming up dry at the moment — not because I’ve never exposed ignorance, but because I’m repressing the memories. However, I will admit that when, in 10th-grade English (at a boys’ prep school with a substantial dumb-macho streak), I read a soliloquy from Hamlet out loud in class, I humiliated myself by mispronouncing “whore”.
July 30, 2008 at 8:26 am
Greg
Ari,
Coming to your defense, Pilate never had a song written about him.
July 30, 2008 at 8:42 am
Sybil Vane
I thought Martha’s Vineyard was connected to/affiliated with the Hamptons until, like, a month ago. No lie. In my head they are just places where rich people go that involve some water and pasture/beaches.
July 30, 2008 at 8:56 am
Adam Roberts
Coming to your defense, Pilate never had a song written about him.
The Stone’s ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ mentions him.
July 30, 2008 at 8:57 am
eric
Inasmuch as Vance has already brought up “Humiliation,” I can’t joke about firing Ari. Joke!
My (partial) list:
1. Dance, only slightly mitigated by my daughter’s interest in ballet;
2. Classical music beyond “I knows what I likes”;
3. Theatre, beyond a sort of American/British c20 canon.
Basically, I’m a philistine.
July 30, 2008 at 9:06 am
Vance Maverick
Like Eric, I know nothing about dance or theater. (I do know classical music, though.) On sports, I’m pretty ignorant apart from a few years of baseball fandom. Pop music since about 1970, but especially hip-hop. I have a nearly perfect record of never recognizing a lyric Spencer Ackerman uses for a title.
July 30, 2008 at 9:33 am
TF Smith
The ladder of academia (academe?)
I thought until a very kind professor told me otherwise that the requisite educational path was bachelor’s, master’s, Phd, and that one could not pass go unless all three steps were completed in order. I now know that it is possible, indeed encouraged by some, to go straight to a Phd program after a bachelor’s.
July 30, 2008 at 9:54 am
ari
And now kid bitzer says I’m an idiot!
July 30, 2008 at 10:11 am
Neddy Merrill
Is this where I claim ignorance of things decent and classy people *should* have ignorance of, thus disingenuously boosting my intellectual cred?
July 30, 2008 at 11:16 am
Aaron Burr
See, Ari chose as his bait something he’s no longer ignorant about, and an example from his deep past. The most embarrassing part of his confession is that he didn’t know “Sympathy for the Devil” at 19.
And yet he calls on us to confess things we’re currently ignorant about. Sounds like ass-covering to me, while getting to take pleasure in others’ ignorance.
Whatever. Here’s mine, protected by VP-pseudonymity: In spite of several classes as an undergrad, a PhD in a related discipline, and tenure in an English department, I retain next to nothing when I try to read literary theory. Maybe it’s because I’m secretly a historian.
July 30, 2008 at 11:16 am
neocynic
I probably shouldn’t even cop to this, but oh, well.
I had no idea who Raymond Carver was until I entered grad school. In my thirties.
I was an English major as an undergrad, with an emphasis in Creative Writing. How did I miss ever hearing about one of the most significant short story writers of all time? I have no idea.
I was pretty embarrassed, though.
July 30, 2008 at 11:21 am
Brad
I think I am ignorant about everything. But I don’t really know for sure.
July 30, 2008 at 11:26 am
John B.
cricket…I know almost nothing about cricket, the game, that is…
July 30, 2008 at 11:52 am
ari
See, Aaron, that was a good one. My only quibble? I’m still pretty embarrassed not to have known who Pontius Pilate was. That’s not the sort of thing one should miss. But at least I was born knowing Raymond Carver’s work. I mean, sheesh, talk about a philistine.
July 30, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Neddy Merrill
Honestly, the things I’m most ashamed of are the ones that are close to home professionally. I should know a bunch more about the philosophy of language, but that’s because of what I work on.
I had a really interesting conversation on a related topic at a dinner party this week– we were sitting around talking about favorite contemporary fiction, and I was a bit intimidated because one guy there is a pretty well-published fiction writer. “Oh, great, me and my shameful ignorance,” I was thinking, but he was refreshingly honest about *not* having read a lot of stuff, including some big famous novels.
One source of shame: how much better this made me feel. At some point I should write a post about how much I hate the middlebrow book fetish.
July 30, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Cala
History of anything that happened on the planet between 1870 and about 1905. I’m sure something happened. Maybe in Europe.
July 30, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Prof Burgos
Didn’t realize we were supposed to be both encyclopedic and fully confessional in our responses, Ari. My apologies.
If it didn’t happen to a European Great Power, the You Ess ov Ay, and it didn’t involve the extensive use of high explosives, I pretty much don’t know about it. (Unless it’s on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. Then I’m DOWN baby!)
But ask me about Pork Chop Hill — go ahead, just ASK ME, I dare ya!
Now dance? Not only do I not know nothin’ about it, I just plain don’t GET it. They’re always showing the Alvin Ailey or whatever dance company on Sesame Street, and I just don’t get it. I laugh at it when Squidward does it. But I don’t get it when people do it “for real.”
Did I mention I spend a lot of time with kids?
July 30, 2008 at 12:58 pm
The things I know could easily fit in a thimble… « Blurred Productions
[…] Posted in Books, Misc. Crap by Smith Michaels on July 30th, 2008 Building on this post at Edge of the American West, and via Ezra Klein, the “long list” for the (very?) […]
July 30, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Cala
Oh, god. A cringeworthy one. First year of grad school, trying to understand Naming and Necessity without understanding that the morning star and the evening star are the same planet. Oh, god.
July 30, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Seth
Sports. I was once on a game show called “Inquizition” (sample here). I made it to the final round, when I choked because I didn’t know Michael Jordan’s number. I lost my chance at the big prize – $250. I did receive a $50 phone card, though.
July 30, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Neddy Merrill
Cala, that’s hilarious. “What? France doesn’t have kings anymore?”
July 30, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Cala
Hey, now.
July 30, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Vance Maverick
I should write a post about how much I hate the middlebrow book fetish.
Please do, this would be fascinating. I come from a long line of middle brows. And I’ve never read Huckleberry Finn.
July 30, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Cala
Hob and Nob, though. Don’t they realize there aren’t any witches??
July 30, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Neddy Merrill
I didn’t mean it THAT way, Cala. It’s just funny to imagine making sense of N&N without knowing that.
July 30, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Cala
It was impossible. I didn’t manage to be crafty about it either, eventually just flat-out asking. It was a small class and for some reason the prof didn’t write me off.
July 30, 2008 at 2:03 pm
kid bitzer
ah, here it is:
“Bah! you wish to hear a man tell of his worst actions, and you
expect the story to come out goody-goody! One’s worst actions
always are mean. We shall see what the general has to say for
himself now. All is not gold that glitters, you know; and because
a man keeps his carriage he need not be specially virtuous, I
assure you, all sorts of people keep carriages. And by what
means?”
In a word, Ferdishenko was very angry and rapidly forgetting
himself; his whole face was drawn with passion. Strange as it may
appear, he had expected much better success for his story. These
little errors of taste on Ferdishenko’s part occurred very
frequently. Nastasia trembled with rage, and looked fixedly at
him, whereupon he relapsed into alarmed silence. He realized that
he had gone a little too far.”
July 30, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Neddy Merrill
I’d have to go back and look but from how I remember it Kripke kind of assumes it’s common knowledge– doesn’t he even use the proper names rather than the definite descriptions? Ignorance of Hesperus and Phosphorus is pretty widespread and I bet half the people who know the Venus-denoting uses know them because of that example.
July 30, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Megan
I still don’t understand the role of the Udalls in the American West and the history blog I read never tells me.
July 30, 2008 at 2:46 pm
neocynic
Ignorance of Hesperus and Phosphorus is pretty widespread and I bet half the people who know the Venus-denoting uses know them because of that example.
I’m pretty sure I first read it in Russell. Or maybe Frege.
July 30, 2008 at 2:56 pm
ari
I still don’t understand the role of the Udalls in the American West
Like the pentaverate. Only more powerful.
July 30, 2008 at 3:27 pm
SEK
You know what’s worse than ignorance? Being ignorant of something you know you know about because you’ve studied it. I’m not ashamed to say I’m weak on Emerson — don’t buy the “if you like Montaigne, you’ll like Emerson” line, as it ain’t true — but I seek rocks to hide under anytime someone mentions Typee or Omoo, both of which I’ve read, neither of which I have anything remotely intelligent to say about. (E.g. “Is it just me, or did Melville love boats?” or “Is that the one about Billy Budd?”)
July 30, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Matt W
Ignorance of Hesperus and Phosphorus is pretty widespread and I bet half the people who know the Venus-denoting uses know them because of that example.
Kripke’s discussion of Cicero marks the moment when we admit we have moved from the days when everyone knew that Cicero denounced the conspiracy of Catiline to the days when we only know that Cicero denounced the conspiracy of Catiline because Russell uses that example. I don’t even remember whether Kripke discusses Tully. There, Ari, that’s something I don’t know.
…there’s a paradox in your request of us, isn’t there? What topic am I the most embarrassingly ignorant about? The one that’s causing you to point and laugh and say “Look at that idiot!” behind my back. But I don’t know what that is.
July 30, 2008 at 3:41 pm
kid bitzer
generally, analytic philosophers avoid having any bits of empirical knowledge, except what occurs incidentally in examples.
you could make up a whole course of studies this way, i.e. what analytic philosophers must learn in each area of knowledge:
astronomy: hesperus = phosphorus
chemistry: water=h2o
history: france was not a monarchy when russell wrote ‘on denoting’
minerology: ‘jade’ is either nephrite or jadeite.
and so on.
not to mention the stuff they know that isn’t true. wha, you mean pain *isn’t* c-fibers?
July 30, 2008 at 4:35 pm
bitchphd
Okay, here you go. In a job interview last week, I was asked what poem I would use as the first reading in a poetry class. I *wanted* to say Marianne Moore’s “The Fish,” which teaches beautifully, but I suddenly thought: oh shit, is that Marianne Moore? Or is it Elizabeth Bishop (whose name I couldn’t even remember)? Or one of the other sorta kinda modern women poets who all get lumped together in my mind?
I ended up saying I’d teach Dylan Thomas’s “Fern Hill,” and then at some point during discussion referred to him as “Dylan,” as if I didn’t know the difference between the poet and the musician.
July 30, 2008 at 4:59 pm
ari
I just wanted to feel closer to you, Matt. Is that so wrong?
July 30, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Vance Maverick
Bishop’s “Fish” wouldn’t have been a bad alternative. But, given your memory lapse (obviously not a matter of ignorance!), you made a fine save.
July 30, 2008 at 5:38 pm
kid bitzer
don’t feel bad, b.
the art of losing isn’t hard to master.
July 30, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Sybil Vane
Nice, bitzer.
July 30, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Matt W
I just wanted to feel closer to you, Matt. Is that so wrong?
I was going to say, you ain’t gonna play me like Howard Ringbaum got played, but Vance and Eric beat me to it.
July 30, 2008 at 7:49 pm
j
Ethan Allen.
Before moving to Vermont, I could count the number of times I’d been north of the Mason-Dixon on one hand. Once in the Green Mountain state, I kept seeing all these businesses named “Ethan Allen” – hotels, restaurants, maybe even a mall.
I turned to my wife and asked “What’s the deal with Ethan Allen? I mean, don’t they just make furniture?”
July 31, 2008 at 6:41 am
anonymous coward
As a kid at public school in Massachusetts, I labeled Africa as the United Kingdom on the Stanford diagnostic test. //facepalm
July 31, 2008 at 6:46 am
anonymous coward
I have to add that I had never seen the term ‘United Kingdom’ before. It had been Britain, Great Britain or England till that point.
Standardized tests suck!!
July 31, 2008 at 7:43 am
John Emerson
The game may be over, but I’m basically ignorant of TV, film, and dance. I have only a spotty knowledge of architecture, drama, opera, and sculpture. (“Spotty knowledge”: a few things I’m enthusiastic about, plus recognizing a few of the biggest names.)
July 31, 2008 at 8:40 am
Shell Goddamnit
I’m a good copy editor – but it is all by feel, as it were; I have NO IDEA of the finer points of the parts of language etc. Sometimes I just have to completely re-write something because it doesn’t read “right”, but I have no clue exactly what’s wrong with it.
More than embarrassing – given what I do for a living, it’s downright *dangerous.*
I have many other areas of extreme ignorance but I don’t want to intrude my first time out & hog all the good stupidity.
July 31, 2008 at 8:53 am
neocynic
I have many other areas of extreme ignorance but I don’t want to intrude my first time out & hog all the good stupidity.
As long as I’m around there’s no chance you can claim all the good stupidity. My stupidity is of the highest quality.
July 31, 2008 at 10:04 am
TF Smith
“Name the holiday that generates the most collect telephone calls?”
“What is Mother’s Day, Alex?”
“No, I’m sorry, and that will cost you.”
Cost me 10 gs, actually.
July 31, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Shell Goddamnit
TF – Ouch. Sympathies.
I remember that question & answer BTW. I remember being amused by your answer – er, question; and also being mildly surprised that it turned out to be wrong.
But you know, it shouldn’t be embarrassing; that’s something that can only be a matter of guesswork, surely? Because who would actually KNOW that factoid?
August 1, 2008 at 8:59 am
TF Smith
Shell G. –
That was a long time ago – really funny that you remembered it; what are the odds?
Apparently the only people who knew it were the telephone company and the research team at the show…that being said, the previous game provided about a third of the downpayment on our house, so I certainly can’t complain. It was an enjoyable experience.
Maybe I can mention it as non-academic life experience if I ever get to go before a hiring committee.
Western Civ for $500, professor?
August 2, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Wrongshore
We call that game Celebrity.
When you are finished the game and you have all these pieces of paper, you should play Celebrity War. Divide the papers in two piles, then turn over papers as in the card game War. For example, one side turns over Pontius Pilate, the other Eric Rauchway. Who is better? Either one team takes both names, or there is a war: lay three cards down and turn over the fourth.
Then play Celebrity Sex War. Turn over the names. Who would you prefer to have sex with? Proceed accordingly.
August 2, 2008 at 6:58 pm
ari
For example, one side turns over Pontius Pilate, the other Eric Rauchway…Who would you prefer to have sex with? Proceed accordingly.
A little presumptuous, Wrongshore, no?
August 25, 2008 at 8:29 am
Netroots Seeks Leftward Shift in Media Coverage « Biodun Iginla’s Weblog
[…] not familiar with Burgos’ work, but a quick Google search indicates he’s apparently a frequent contributor to hard-left blog comment threads, and he spends time writing progressive letters to the editor. Burgos is also an Army veteran, so […]