I’m sure we have all heard the expression book smart, but no common sense. It seems slightly contradictory, but quite accurate in many cases. I can vouch for that.
I seem to recall an incident several years back – mainly because I have continually been reminded of it – of when I came storming downstairs, beyond frustrated at how hot it was in my bedroom even though the window was wide open. My mother, perplexed, followed me back upstairs to check out the situation.
She peered through the window. Tap. Tap. Tap. She gently knocked on the glass. Yes, the glass. Apparently, in my frustration I hadn’t noticed that, while the window was indeed open, the storm door remained in a closed position. Hence, the lack of cool air.
Instant classic.
Oh, but that wasn’t where it ended.
Through the years, I have on occasion come out with a phrase or expression which – so I thought – was quite cliché and widely used. Except… I may have gotten it slightly wrong. Very wrong, in fact.
Case in point: Moo point. Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently, this is what I thought I had heard, time and time again, never doubting that it was in fact the commonly accepted form of the expression.
Oh, but there’s more.
There was the “play it by year” debacle. I forget exactly how that one came up, but even after I was met with blank stares and a general, “I’m sorry, what did you just say?” reaction, I was still convinced that my version made perfect sense. I clearly remember attempting to justify it by explaining, “It makes perfect sense – it’s like, you wait a year and see how it goes…play it by year…get it?”
Apparently not.
Where did all of these little nuggets of wisdom come from? One can only imagine. I’d like to think they were compiled throughout the many years of studying and writing papers, of researching and reading, of indulging that perfectionist gene to the point that – years later, when all that was behind me – I was free to embrace the airhead that was lurking just under the surface all along.
See, all that schoolwork must have done unrepairable damage... um, I mean irreparable. Right.
{Published: December 5th, 2012}