conuly | Not the response I was expecting...

I texted a friend to say that we were planning to go to the Natural History Museum tomorrow to do their presentation on the eclipse, and you know what she said?

"What is the eclipse?"

...

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

monanotlisa

~~You need better friends~~. This makes me appreciate all your posts on US education even more.

From:

ex_inklessej388

Blew my mind...

Edited Date: 2017-08-20 07:19 pm (UTC)

From:

author_by_night

Is she living under a rock?

From:

naye

...I... what?

From:

siderea

One of today's lucky 10,000!

From:

shadowkat

Perhaps she should join you, it would be beneficial.

From:

chickenfeet

It's where the sun don't shine...

From:

kyrielle

O.o

WOW.

And I thought my eldest's Cub Scout pack leader was making me twitch on the subject. (Still is. He keeps calling it the 'solstice'. He knows about it. He links to the right material. He just...keeps...grabbing the wrong word.)

From:

chaos_by_design

*sniff*

That is just sad.

From:

wpadmirer

Okay, that is someone who is seriously out of touch!

From:

conuly

What continually gets me about the stuff she doesn't know is that she's a lawyer. I assume she went through college and all that - but when it comes to the sciences, she's completely stummped.

(But then, that would do it. I'd be more surprised to hear this from a doctor!)

From:

conuly

I wouldn't blame her for not following the news.

From:

conuly

It's the first time that the moon has blocked all or part of the sun for the entire USA in several decades.

From:

conuly

It's possible, I guess, that she just didn't realize the AMNH was doing an event.

From:

monanotlisa

Oh, there are a lot of lawyers...the US are swimming in them. It's the nation with the highest ratio of humans:lawyers, 300:1. ;)

I will add it is not it is NOT the most litigious nation, probably because of the incredible price point on lawsuits. But, yeah.

To stop teasing you, I too have a lawyer friend who doesn't know the most basic things -- where well-known countries are, how parts of her body function, and so on.

Edited (Well, and some don't even learn GRAMMAR in school, it seems.) Date: 2017-08-21 01:49 am (UTC)

From:

conuly

Not in NYC. We'll still get 25% sun.

Edited Date: 2017-08-21 02:13 am (UTC)

From:

conuly

We only have 300 lawyers per person? Seems a bit low! ;P

_{(You typed it right, I'm just misreading for funzies.)}

Edited Date: 2017-08-21 02:14 am (UTC)

From:

adafrog

eh?

From:

amaebi

From:

monanotlisa

Thought it was funnier this way. Takes one to know one. ;)

Sent from my iPhone

From:

thetimesink

Maybe if you had pronounced it "apoc-eclipse"?

From:

flexagon

Since I think you enjoy these stories, here's an exchange my boyfriend sent me about the eclipse:

Me: Do you have any eclipse glasses:
Checkout person at CVS: No...everyone is looking for those! When is it supposed to happen?
[some discussion of eclipse timing and effect on light conditions]
Her: So, I don't understand...why does it happen?
Me: [pause] Um...the moon gets in the way of the sun?
Her: [laughs] Oh, I know THAT. I mean, what is the purpose of it?

From:

conuly

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1877:_Eclipse_Science

From:

conuly

That'd be fun. Right now my trip is 84% under-18, 16% me.

From:

conuly

I'll text her as we approach totality (or as close as we get in NYC!)

From:

conuly

I'm sure she knows what an eclipse is in the scientific sense...? I didn't press her on the issue.

From:

conuly

Oh, dear.

From:

gatheringrivers

I wouldn't be at ALL surprised to hear that from a doctor - I've worked tech support for medstaff. Oh the crazy assumptions I could tell you about!

From:

gatheringrivers

Oh, my!

From:

naye

Yes, exactly! It's one of the biggest events of the century so far and she... hadn't heard of it? How is that even possible??

From:

kutsuwamushi

To be honest, I'm not really surprised at this coming out of the mouth of an "educated" professional. It takes more than an education to be a generally knowledgeable person, since what you learn in school is only a sliver of what's out there (and you'll forget most of it). You have to be curious and interested and paying attention.

From:

thetimesink

Direct quote from a few minutes ago: They just said to leave pets inside today because of the eclipse.

Having never learned to not poke the tiger, "Hey, I have spare glasses!"

From:

silveradept

That's not the expected response, but it will be fun all the same!

From:

conuly

That might've been good advice for people experiencing totality, or near totality - animals can act strange at that time, and throngs of people might easily run over a cat or dog on the way home.

But if your kitty or doggie is in the habit of staring at the sun, I daresay they're already blind.