Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Are there limits to our capacity to learn?
Oh boy, I hope not. I was thinking last night about the knowledge taking up space in my brain that is completely useless. I was also wondering if that's why I have trouble remembering more important things.
Things I know that do me no good:
Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain have a child named Frances Bean. (and Gweneth Paltrow has a child named Apple.)
Famous people who profess membership in the church of scientology include Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Beck, Julliet Lewis, Kirsty Alley, and Lisa Marie Presley.
The following actors have played mentally challenged people in movies in a bid to be taken seriously (or to win awards): Dustin Hoffman (Rainman), Tom Hanks (Gump), Sean Penn (I am Sam), William H. Macy (that traveling salesman movie on TNT), Rosie O'Donnell (last Sunday's "Riding the Bus" movie), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Radio), Leo Dicaprio (Gilbert Grape), Julliet Lewis (can't remember the name of the movie. She was retarded and wanted to get married and have a baby).
(The list of actors above are the ones I consider most shameless in their bid for an award. Some of those movies are actually pretty good, but they suffer from the "I'm playing a retarded person, give me an award" stigma. You can just anticipate the ads before award season: "For your consideration..." Puke.)
The point of all this is, why do I remember these things, which aren't even interesting to me, when I can't remember most of the terms from my freshman biology class? I spent days and days learning that stuff, poring over texts, writing notes, and it's all gone.
Things I know that do me no good:
Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain have a child named Frances Bean. (and Gweneth Paltrow has a child named Apple.)
Famous people who profess membership in the church of scientology include Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Beck, Julliet Lewis, Kirsty Alley, and Lisa Marie Presley.
The following actors have played mentally challenged people in movies in a bid to be taken seriously (or to win awards): Dustin Hoffman (Rainman), Tom Hanks (Gump), Sean Penn (I am Sam), William H. Macy (that traveling salesman movie on TNT), Rosie O'Donnell (last Sunday's "Riding the Bus" movie), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Radio), Leo Dicaprio (Gilbert Grape), Julliet Lewis (can't remember the name of the movie. She was retarded and wanted to get married and have a baby).
(The list of actors above are the ones I consider most shameless in their bid for an award. Some of those movies are actually pretty good, but they suffer from the "I'm playing a retarded person, give me an award" stigma. You can just anticipate the ads before award season: "For your consideration..." Puke.)
The point of all this is, why do I remember these things, which aren't even interesting to me, when I can't remember most of the terms from my freshman biology class? I spent days and days learning that stuff, poring over texts, writing notes, and it's all gone.
# posted by smacky @ 10:01 AM 
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I think that movie was called The Other Sister. But no matter what she ever does, she will always be the annoying teenage girl from Christmas Vacation to me.
The useless knowledge comes part and parcel with being an editor. It's like your brain is specially wired to catalog the most pointless stuff in the known universe, on the off-chance that your boss will someday ask you to name 10 famous members of the Church of Scientology.
The "Top Ten Reasons Why Editing Is COOL!" list states: "(3.) You could be the world's best quiz show contestant because you're a dictionary of useless information." Also, "(7.) ... You can talk about Arafat, Albright, Agassi or Aguilera and sound like you know what you're talking about ...because you do."
(See this link at CopyDesk.org for the rest of the list.)
P.S. Because I am also a compendium of useless knowledge, I can tell you that Juliette Lewis was in "The Other Sister" AND is a member of the Church of Scientology! ::grins::
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The "Top Ten Reasons Why Editing Is COOL!" list states: "(3.) You could be the world's best quiz show contestant because you're a dictionary of useless information." Also, "(7.) ... You can talk about Arafat, Albright, Agassi or Aguilera and sound like you know what you're talking about ...because you do."
(See this link at CopyDesk.org for the rest of the list.)
P.S. Because I am also a compendium of useless knowledge, I can tell you that Juliette Lewis was in "The Other Sister" AND is a member of the Church of Scientology! ::grins::
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