[PRCo] Re: Geography

[Fred Schneider]

Was medical school a correspondance course?

John F Bromley wrote:

> 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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> >