Of all the dozens and dozens of kids (high school and college) that I had hired over the years being a retail manager I’ll never forget this one particular girl.
It was for a basic part-time position at a mall cd/dvd store during the holiday season. She interviewed well enough showing a good attitude and intelligence. It was her first job.
It wasn’t until I hired her that I realized she had absolutely no concept of how a part-time retail job worked. She didn’t understand the concept of an “hourly” wage. She somehow thought she was on a salary and would receive a check for the same amount every week. She also didn’t understand the concept of a schedule. She honestly thought that now that she had the job she could come and go as she pleased and work whenever she felt like it.
After missing her shift completely the first time and then just showing up on another day at a time that was convenient for her I asked her the basic “You missed your shift, you didn’t call anyone about it, what happened?” Her response was a “Oh, I was busy doing something with my friends.” :smack:
I gave her the general policy-guidline thing about missing scheduled shifts and unexcused “no-call/no-shows” and warnings and termination but I could tell it just wan’t registering with her.
After doing this twice more in the same week she again randomly showed up to work. I sat her down and explained I had no choice but to terminate her employment. She was seriously confused by the whole matter.
We were required to memorize all the counties in Pennsylvania in high school. It was about this time I figured out I could flunk both quizes (we got to memorize them in two chunks) and still get an “A” in PA History. This was a major lightbulb event for me - deliberately flunking a quiz. I still don’t know all the counties, nor do I care.
Oh, and to stay on topic, I once had a coworker for whom english was not a first language ask me to define teabagging. That was the one piece of slang I told him to look up, rather than explain it. At home.
That’s what comes from too much pouting and not enough pooting.
Does anybody care to address exactly what purpose knowing all of your states counties might serve or why this would even be included in a curricula? Especially to a kid in grade school?
Or is it just a mindless excercise in memorization of a large group of names?
The only one they ever mention is South County and it’s not even a county!
I’m with Dolores Reborn. 50 states no problem but all the counties in Texas, no effin’ way.
And what’s all this talk about this Mexico place?
This is how I remember where Mexico is>>
This is not a question, but more of a statement that just made me go :smack:
I was sitting at the staff cafeteria eating lunch when a coworker that I had pegged as being on the dim side of life confirmed my assumptions about him.
Him: So did you know that avocado’s are the only vegetable with calories.
Me: I think you mean fat, every food has calories.
Him: No only avocado’s have calories. I saw it on TV a while ago.
Me 
Daddy’s precious little snowflake. 
Was she going to school? Because I’d love to know if she thought the same thing worked for school.
Everyone I know has had to do it as part of their state history year, usually in eighth grade. It’s a mindless exercise in memorization.
Sometime around 1990, I was in Washington, DC doing the tourist thing. I looked like a tourist, loud shirt, shorts, tennis shoes, with a camera hanging from my neck. I had wandered south of the Library of Congress building and was headed west back towards the mall on Independence Avenue. I had just reached the last corner before going onto the grounds of the Capitol building and stopped to decide exactly where I wanted to go. A couple came up from behind me and politely asked me if I could direct them to the Washington Monument. I sort of pointed and said, “Right there.”
They thanked me and walked off.
A friend of mine was visiting his family in Ohio during the summer. A girl he worked with back in Indiana and was kinda seeing emailed him to ask him if there were any castles in Ohio. That one made me do a little double take.
Yup. Soon’s someone said “name all your counties” and I’m pulling up in my head the picture of Texas on the front of the phone book with all them goddamned little drawins on it.
No *effing * way in hell.
And I’m with the Texans who vote that anyone who doesn’t know Mexico and Texas share a border is a waste of a brain cell and should be ashamed to call themselves a Texan. Ye gods.
Oh, coming back to edit and say that… wait. dammit. Lost the thought in all my marvelling at the waste of a brain cell.
I hope he answered yes. I have been to the Piatt Castles (admittedly 3 decades ago) and they are still around. And then there is this list.
I dunno, I wouldn’t call it mindless. I admit that geography is one of the duller subjects, because it lends itself so strongly to rote memorization. However, my geography sucks and I know that I would understand some of the political problems in the world a lot better if I had a better grasp of where the hell everything is.
I’m pretty glad we were required to learn all the states. I just wish I could remember the world.
Japanese businessman at Honolulu airport consistently gets refused a ride by the taxi’s he flags down. asks me “Why can’t I get a ride to Hilo ?”
When I lived in the Cleveland area, I passed Franklin Castle many times, as it was on the bus route I took to and from work.
My cousin was planning a trip to California, and she asked me how much extra it would cost to visit Alaska and Hawaii too, since they’re ***right there. ***Apparently she’d been looking at a map of the U.S., and mapmakers often put Alaska and Hawaii in the lower left, assuming that nobody would ever think they’re actually there. They never met my cousin.
She is no child, but a woman in her 50s. And yes, this is the same cousin who thinks all dogs are male and all cats are female, and after a dog and cat mate, the cat gives birth to a litter of puppies and kittens.
And by the way, my cousin is an x-ray technician in a hospital. :eek:
I’m guessing that’s (on?) another island, yes?
These are hilarious!!
My contribution:
Years ago we were watching movies with my wife’s friends. There’s a scene where a baby dinosaur hatches from an egg - my wife’s friend turns to us, slack-jawed, eyes wide, and asks why she’s never seen baby dinosaurs before. I thought she might be pulling our leg, but then she asked if they were in a zoo or museum somewhere that she could visit. We were in our early twenties, it still baffles me…