[PRCo] Re: Geography

[John F Bromley]

This sad lack goes to use of language as well.  My wife and I were in Indian
River Michigan a few years ago with her brother and his wife and her mom and
one or two of the other relatives.  We were all eating at a local restaurant
and the waitress who was serving us let us know she was new, just working
there until she could locate a residency to obtain the last requirements
before being licensed for medical practice.  She was drawn out by my brother
in law, who does this to people, asked where she had gone to school and why
she was having trouble, as most top students were sought out.  She allowed,
all in one sentence that must have had two hundred words, that she had gone
to (listed several schools, including the University of Pittsburgh, Derrick)
and she didn't know why she was having trouble and then told us, quite
unasked, that "we don't got no more cherry pie".  Pete said "ah!!" and left
her alone after that.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Swindler" <j_swindler at hotmail.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 8:26 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Geography


>
>
> Not just geography.  Another favorite story that Fred related several
> (many?) years ago concerns Jim Henwood, a college history professor. (at a
> Pennsylvania school - is that a close enough link for this list?)  Anyway,
> he would give incoming students a short test to get some sort of idea what
> the students knowledge base was of history from high school.  To the
> question: who was Thomas Jefferson, one student allegedly replied - was he
> one of the Jefferson Airplane?
>
> Well, I thought it was funny - and pathetic.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
> >From: Fred Schneider <fschnei at supernet.com>
> >Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >To: pittsburgh railways <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>,   Peter
> >Johansson <peter.johansson at ntlworld.com>
> >Subject: [PRCo] Geography
> >Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 20:47:48 -0500
> >
> >American Automobile Association (AAA Lancaster County) has become
> >geographically challenged.  Went in today and asked for a group of
> >tourguide books ... "everything from Alabama across the south to
> >California, up the west coast, and every book along the northern states
> >back to Minneapolis, then down to Chicago.  After staring blankly at me
> >for a half minute, the girl then said, "I'm new here.  What does that
> >mean?"
> >
> >Damn glad I didn't ask for a list of B&Bs between Berwick-upon-Tweed and
> >Dundee!
> >
> >For those in the dark, and JCS and EHL won't be, this all relates to a
> >National Geographic test (the second one back) in which people in the U.
> >S. scored second worst in the world ... ten questions about the
> >absolutely most simple geography in the world, such as the 'Persian Gulf
> >lies between Saudi Arabia and ___________' or 'In which continent does
> >the United States lie?'   After that test I decided to see if it was
> >true.  Ed, John and I were eating dinner in a restaurant in Hampton
> >Township, fewer than 10 miles west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Just
> >for the hell of it I played with the waitress ... told her we were
> >traveling from Ohio to a meeting in Philadelphia and were unfamiliar
> >with this area ... and then asked her "Isn't the capital of Pennsylvania
> >somewhere in this area?"  The girl responded, "I'm not in school any
> >more.  I don't have to know."
> >I later found out that my niece, who was 17 at the time, was unable to
> >tell me which country borders the U. S. to the south.
> >
> >Sad, no?
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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