# Juvenile delinquent taught at a university **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154 "2014-01-07T18:58:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/241 "2014-01-23T20:08:16Z")
What is your point? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Simus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@Don\_Simus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Simus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/242 "2014-01-23T20:38:34Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Not the right example, actually, **Don Simus** , that one is of a person that is (as of the event) _unable_ to learn to fly, not just uninterested. Uninterested because unable. And unable because of what? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/243 "2014-01-23T20:41:54Z")
What is your point? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Simus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@Don\_Simus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Simus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/244 "2014-01-23T20:59:06Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What is your point? I have a certain horizon before me. It did not yet shrink into a point like it did for some people. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/245 "2014-01-23T21:02:06Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What is your point? I suggest that we take Don’s failure to provide an earnest reply to this question as tacit agreement with my summary in post #207, and afford his “point” all the consideration and admiration that it deserves. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/246 "2014-01-23T21:02:25Z")
> [@Don\_Simus](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > What is your point? > > I have a certain horizon before me. It did not yet shrink into a point like it did for some people. Well, I appreciate the response, although it doesn’t really address the question that’s been asked of you since the first page. What is the argument you are making in this thread with regard to Frank Abagnale and the sociology course he taught/assisted in the teaching of/whatever? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Simus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@Don\_Simus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Simus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/247 "2014-01-23T21:07:01Z")
> [@BlakeTyner](#): > > Why don’t you make an assertion? My assertion is that a person whose job is to write articles that Shakespeare was a fag could not invent something what increases mpg. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/248 "2014-01-23T22:24:29Z")
Y’know, I get the feeling that at some point in the past, some people with a high level of “book learning” in the Liberal Arts or Social Sciences were traumatizingly mean to **Don Simus**. > [@Don\_Simus](#): > > Uninterested because unable. And unable because of what? :rolleyes: An apparent phobia about heights, it says so right in the post that contained the anecdote, didn’t it? It sure isn’t likely that it’s because she’s a Sociology major or a Modern Art collector. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Simus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@Don\_Simus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Simus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/249 "2014-01-23T23:37:34Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Y’know, I get the feeling that at some point in the past, some people with a high level of “book learning” in the Liberal Arts or Social Sciences were traumatizingly mean to **Don Simus**. And how does it feel? > [@JRDelirious](#): > > :rolleyes: An apparent phobia about heights, it says so right in the post that contained the anecdote, didn’t it? Again a euphemism. Don’t we have an English word for it? > [@JRDelirious](#): > > It sure isn’t likely that it’s because she’s a Sociology major or a Modern Art collector. Of course. You interchanged cause and effect. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/250 "2014-01-23T23:43:39Z")
> [@Don\_Simus](#): > > Again a euphemism. Don’t we have an English word for it? What euphemism? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/251 "2014-01-24T00:18:13Z")
> [@Don\_Simus](#): > > Again a euphemism. Don’t we have an English word for it? I’d think you were fishing for “acrophobia,” but that’s one of those big dictionary words that a college fancypants might use, so that can’t be it. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Simus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@Don\_Simus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Simus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/252 "2014-01-24T00:33:45Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > I’d think you were fishing for “acrophobia,” This is even more Greek and less Saxon than the previous version. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/253 "2014-01-24T01:00:09Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > I’d think you were fishing for “acrophobia,” but that’s one of those big dictionary words that a college fancypants might use, so that can’t be it. Well, so far we various posters have tried “afraid” (IN THE VERY POST THAT DESCRIBES THE SITUATION), “unable”, “phobia”/“acrophobia” and no dice. And I emphasize that first bit because normally someone denouncing “an euphemism” in this situation would be fishing for the word “fear”, in order to impugn a weakness of character. But since “afraid” WAS already there, our OP continues to be obstinately opaque about what in Hell’s blazes is he trying to communicate. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/254 "2014-01-24T01:06:45Z")
> [@Don\_Simus](#): > > This is even more Greek and less Saxon than the previous version. Angst? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/255 "2014-01-24T01:46:03Z")
> [@Don\_Simus](#): > > Again a euphemism. Don’t we have an English word for it? Lots of English words have Greek roots. You know, like “euphemism.” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/256 "2014-01-24T01:58:43Z")
You know what? I have _no_ idea what **Don Simus** is trying to say in this thread and clearly neither does he. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Simus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@Don\_Simus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Simus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/257 "2014-01-24T04:03:49Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Well, so far we various posters have tried “afraid” (IN THE VERY POST THAT DESCRIBES THE SITUATION) Exactly. The very first post used the euphemism “afraid of heights” and I asked to use the right word. Instead the posters started replacing Saxon words with Greek ones. Why not use a simple English word? Some people can’t pilot an airplane because they are … Fill in the dots please. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/258 "2014-01-24T04:17:02Z")
> [@Don\_Simus](#): > > Some people can’t pilot an airplane because they are … > > Fill in the dots please. Poopypants? ---
**Author:** ![BlakeTyner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@BlakeTyner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlakeTyner)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/259 "2014-01-24T05:18:40Z")
> [@Don\_Simus](#): > > My assertion is that a person whose job is to write articles that Shakespeare was a fag could not invent something what increases mpg. And a Swiss patent clerk could not have anything useful to contribute to physics, I’m sure. I’m kinda glad now I didn’t tell you I have a pilot’s license. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154/260 "2014-01-24T05:47:21Z")
> [@BlakeTyner](#): > > And a Swiss patent clerk could not have anything useful to contribute to physics, I’m sure. There’s this other guy in the title of a bad piece of fiction by Dan Brown. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/juvenile-delinquent-taught-at-a-university/678154.md?page=14)