Well, he failed Geography...

[Rappunzill]

It's Freshmen Summer Welcome at the college where I work, so we've become quite used to people wandering in with confused expressions. It's ok, they're new here. This one, however, took the cake. (Possibly because he had the munchies.)


Young guy walks in with a confused expression and a bag from our bookstore, filled with new books.
ME: Can I help you?

HIM: Yeah...I need to get my ID...?

ME: (wondering why someone would try going into the Romance Languages dept. for that) That would be in (trying hard not to look pointedly at the bag) the bookstore.

HIM: Oh! Someone told me that I needed to go to The Commons...

(Should I tell him that the bookstore is in The Commons? No, let's start simpler.)

ME: This is not The Commons.

HIM: Oh! You're right. Thanks!

With that stunning remark, he wanders off, presumably in search of the bookstore he was just at. I don't have high hopes.

[auntiem]

Let's pray he is a philosophy student and not pre-med.

[Skrae]

I can see it now, he's digging around in the chest, "Hey, this isn't the brain!"

[Xarlaxas]

Let's pray he is a philosophy student and not pre-med.

I don't think the degree you've chosen to do at university determines your level of intelligence at all (the high and mighty sciences people who keep on saying that the arts/humanities are "useless" can go to hell....).

He probably wandered into the bookstore because he'd been there before rather than him thinking it was where he'd get his ID, but who knows what goes through the minds of people new to places. ^^;

[FuzzyKitten99]

Oh my MIL can trump that without even trying. She graduated high school, but I am not quite sure how or if maybe the standards were very low back then.

When DH and I were planning our honeymoon, we told her we were thinking of Florida. As we didn't have enough vacation time left after our wedding, nor the funds to go, we were planning to go a few months later in January.

She looked us straight in the eye and asked why we would want to go someplace even colder than Minnesota in January.



She then said, completely serious: "Isn't Florida somewhere up North?"



Uh, no.

Fast forward to this year. I told her I was going on a cruise from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. Because March is whale migration season, I might see whales.

A few weeks later my husband's friend, who works at the same company as my MIL, asks me when I am going to Alaska.

Alaska? Sorry, it is cold and snowy here. The last place I want to be in mid-March is someplace colder and snowy-er. Why would I go there this time of year? He said that my MIL said I was going on an Alaskan cruise to go whale-watching.

So no matter how dumb that kid seemed, he's a rocket scientist compared to my MIL.

[Broomjockey]

I don't think the degree you've chosen to do at university determines your level of intelligence at all (the high and mighty sciences people who keep on saying that the arts/humanities are "useless" can go to hell....).

I don't think that's quite what they meant. I think it's a case of the stereotype of philosophy majors being disconnected from the world around them, "head in the clouds." And a large dose of "would YOU want THIS guy operating on you?"

[auntiem]

I don't think that's quite what they meant. I think it's a case of the stereotype of philosophy majors being disconnected from the world around them, "head in the clouds." And a large dose of "would YOU want THIS guy operating on you?"

That is exactly it.
auntiem - English major (by way of industrial chemistry and print tech. with a foray into architecture)

[GingerBiscuit]

Unfortunately, very academically intelligent people can often be very spacy.

I don't like to boast about my intelligence, but it's higher than average... and I. AM. A. DITZ. Ditzditzditzditz. Somtimes I forget how to spell my NAME. I lose stuff, just because I lose track of things after I put them down.

Occasionally I get words confused. Not even words that sound the same. Conversations with me are along the lines of *so blahblahblahblah english, blahblahblah psychology blahblahblah guess what I learned about optics today sweetie I learned that... urrmmm... thingies. You know. Stuff, Does. Things."

[Xarlaxas]

That is exactly it.
auntiem - English major (by way of industrial chemistry and print tech. with a foray into architecture)

Alright, sorry 'bout that, I've had run ins with engineering students a lot lately who've irked me to no end on the subject so a bit touchy, heh.

@Broomjockey: The Ancient philosophy teacher at my uni does in fact work at the top of one of the towers because he "likes the way the building sways".

@FuzzyKitten99: Living in Scotland even I know that Florida is as far south as you could get in the USA (though I have family there so I've been there), I really do worry about people sometimes. ^^;

[Samaliel]

@FuzzyKitten99: Living in Scotland even I know that Florida is as far south as you could get in the USA (though I have family there so I've been there), I really do worry about people sometimes. ^^;

Only if you don't count Hawaii.

But, yeah, I'd have expected anybody to know Florida to be South. I mean, I couldn't place Delaware on a map to save my life, but Florida ?

Yet, I criticize, but there are a few French régions I couldn't place on a map, either. I'm kind of bad at Geography.

[FuzzyKitten99]

@FuzzyKitten99: Living in Scotland even I know that Florida is as far south as you could get in the USA (though I have family there so I've been there), I really do worry about people sometimes. ^^;

My husband has always said that it was probably a good thing that his dad got his mom pregnant with his older brother when she was 17 (dad was 25 at the time, go figure) because he doesn't think that she would do well on her own with all responsibility on her. She isn't very responsible. I think it has to do with her dad not really being in the picture for most of her life (he left when she was like 7 or something), so I told him I think that FIL is subconsciously like a parent to her, being he is that much older.

[AdminAssistant]

The only thing that bothers me is when someone says a degree is 'worthless' - like Philosophy or English or..well, Theatre. No education is worthless. Although I was talking with a guy who was a philosophy major, and he said, "You can't go get a job at the philosopy factory." So...I have a sense of humor about it ("I'm a liberal arts major - Welcome to Starbucks") but I'm proud of my degree(s).

[Slytovhand]

I double majored in Philosophy... that's why I'm in a call centre