Is this an example of the man saying something stupid or the woman? While she obviously didn’t get what he was suggesting, it’s kind of a stupid thing to suggest, isn’t it? I doubt that the outcome of a 3-day endurance race is affected by the logistics of urination. Or is it just a joke the guy was making, and she was stupid because she doesn’t get it?
Ken Norton, who was a boxer (he beat Ali) was doing color commentary on a kick boxing match. He made reference to a “straight left hook”.
Regards,
Shodan
I’m not sure if this quite measures up, but dang if these media jocks don’t need to get some scientific training. Or maybe just MORE scientific training in the case of the more prominent ones.
The late, great Charles Kuralt was hosting CBS Sunday Morning at the time, so I’m pretty sure that he is the guilty party.
Voyager has just rounded Neptune, long known for two moons, and it had spotted at least one more at the time of broadcast. (A total of eight became official soon enough, including oldies-but-goodies Triton and Nereid. Later still more were logged, but that is not part of the story.)
In an almost breathless speech, Mr. Kuralt spoke of how we take what “science” presents at face value, but every once in a while it is proved “wrong.” The textbooks all said that Neptune had two moons, period.
And yet here was a third!!! “Science” was wrong!
Technically, this is made even sillier than just a misunderstanding of what science is and how it operates. (And let’s not forget that dozens of “new moons” had already been cataloged upon the flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.)
When I looked into it, I found out that some of the newer books had already listed a third satellite around Neptune, although little was known about it, prior to Voyager. I assumed that it would correspond to the satellite now known as Proteus, because it was the largest of the six, but it was actually Larissa. (These names came fairly late, but in the meantime there were designations. Like 1989N1, etc.)
So he really needed more research done. Or a sharper staff to do it for him.
This second related item is not quite as jarring, because it was only a local radio announcer, but Kuralt was topped when said annoncer blandly informed us that “Jupiter has three moons.”
At least!
An old college acquaintance made it funny after I told him, when he chanted:
“Scorecards! Scorecards! Can’t tell one planet from another without a scorecard!”
- “Jack”
In the case of the woman, I’d say it was funny just because she got embarrassed talking about urination.
In the case of the man, he clearly didn’t understand that women could pee off the back of the sled while it’s moving, too – they’d just be standing differently.
Which reminds me of a (male) friend of mine who got into a “peeing for distance” contest off the back deck of a ski cabin when he was in college. One of the girls came out and asked what was going on. They explained it to her and jokes were made. She turned around, dropped her drawers, and won the contest. Much hilarity ensued.
My friend ended up marrying her.
This isn’t completely on topic, but about two years ago, BBC tried to schedule an interview with Bob Marley for a documentary.
Well, I think it was rather stupid of him to bring this subject up while on the air, and then stupid of her to continue to pursue it on the air.
I know very little about the actual competition conditions of such races – I’ve never been involved in one. But as the winner is only a few minutes ahead of the 2nd place (38 minutes last year), a few pee stops a day over 3 days could possibly make a difference.
Yeah, if they bothered to use dictionaries they would know better than to use “words” like hoax and gullible and confuse the public that these are actually words.
A very serious indication of ignorance.
- “Jack”
This was back in 79 or so. It wasn’t really stupid as that he was making an ass of himself. The local weather guy is predicting light snow, less than an inch in most places in the metro area.
Next morning: I wake up to 7 inches of snow and am late for work. Anyway, he comes on the 5 pm newscast and explains that additional moisture came into the mix, hence heavier snow. No shit?
Jesus, even as a pot smoking teen I knew he was full of shit. Just say you fucked up dude.
Peter Jennings during the 9/11 coverage of the WTC collapse.
“It was like peeling a banana… except that it was full of people.”
I could have sworn Tom Brokov said something similar on the Today show coverage as well…“Just like peeling a banana”
“Although police have yet to catch the rapist, local resident [insert name] says she’s still worried about the safety of women in the neighborhood.” Although?!
“Scientists have discovered that it’s not just what we eat that makes us fat. Drinks can be high in calories too…” No kidding, huh? I bet that was news a few decades ago, but this was a story on Good Morning America less than a year ago!
I don’t know if it was a commentator or a guest, but passing through a room I overheard someone on a political show about a week ago declare that we can’t let partisanism dictate our actions because “We need to move towards together.” I thought I misheard, but she repeated it. “Move towards together.” Frankly, I’m happier moving towards apart.
I’ve mentioned this before. A local Nashville news anchor a few years ago apparently intended to say that something was a virtual “time bomb.” Instead, he said that it was “a virtual tampon.” Just a little slip of the tongue.
I heard something on the radio recently, talking about the increasing price of gold the newsreader said, “The yellow metal is now selling for…”
I wondered what was the purpose of this bit of script. Did they think that lots of ABC radio listeners are unaware that gold is a “yellow metal” and either they should inform us or alternatively dazzle us with their level of knowledge.
Today, on the radio- talking of the kayak races “And so and so, who were first in the race won line honours”. Really?
I think this is just a case of creative writing run amok. The writer didn’t want to keep repeating the word “gold” and so looked for a synonym. And came up with “yellow metal”. :rolleyes:
A couple weeks ago I wrote a brief story that a stretch of highway near town X would be closed overnight.
My anchor rewrote the story.
The result:
A seven kilometre stretch of highway 20 will be closed tonight for construction.
It will shut down at 8 pm, and re-open at 6 tomorrow morning.
Detours will be available.
The astute among you will notice a crucial missing detail.
Our local newscasters do this every summer. They announce that “over 12,000 people in the Genesee County area are without power tonight. If you are among them, Consumers Energy assures you that power will be restored by…” such & such a date. My husband & I laugh. If a household is without power, how are they watching a news program? (pedal-powered TVs? We never thought of that.)
Love, Phil
Probably using their emergency generator.
Those are quite common back home on the farm. When you have herds of animals to be fed & watered, you just can’t be without power for any extended period of time (like more than 6 hours).
And the information on when they expect the power to be restored is critical, too – most people need to get supplies, etc. if it’s going to a long time.
I hadn’t considered a generator. (Silly me, we’ve been looking at one for this winter, too). Good call, t-bonham.
Love, Phil
I guess it’s not stupid, just annoying. We had a newcaster on the local NPR station in Cleveland who would consistently refer to snow as “white stuff.” “We’ll be having up to six inches of the white stuff this morning, so be careful driving.”
I was so glad when she moved to Seattle or someplace in the Pacific Northwest. Where she is presumably talking about the “wet stuff.” At least I hope so. Please don’t send April back to Cleveland.
But a real one: When the U.S. servicemen were killed in 1983 by a suicide truck bomber in Beirut the next thing the reporter said was, “But even worse, Jessica Savitch was killed today in a car accident.”
One newscaster dying is worse than 241 people being murdered?