They May Be Professors But...

[poliphilo]

Over Christmas they've been running a special season of University Challenge in which the mentors of the nation- writers, professors, broadcasters-  get to show that outside their particular spheres of expertise they're as ignorant as the rest of us. It's oddly reassuring to find, for exampe, that Professor Susan Blackmore- the celebrity parapsychologist- doesn't know her McGonagall from her Burns and that not a single egghead in a box of eight can place Leonardo's Last Supper in Milan. 

Comments

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

And yet somehow think they can sneer at those who aren't in academia. Give me someone with street smart common sense than someone with a PhD in an obscurity any day.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

My ex-partner has a PhD in Astronomy, but works as a seismologist. She was always totally amazed when I would do something like fix the toilet or change a door nob. I always felt like she appreciated my very practical skills.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

She probably did, as it would likely never occur to her that she could learn to do it herself.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

She probably actually has. She's been living alone for years now, although, I have heard her talk about calling plumbers and the like. So, I don't know.