Reply #52: Two winners, both from my grad school days

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1) Remember that famous New Yorker cover of a Manhattanite's view of the United States, with everything really vague past the Hudson River? I used to think it was an exaggeration. Well, while attending grad school on the East Coast, I went out with this guy from New York City, and we were having the usual get-acquainted conversation, and he suddenly said, "I keep forgetting. Does Minnesota have a seacoast?" I mumbled something about "not in this geological era," and ever thereafter believed in the truth of the New Yorker cover.

2) A guy asked me out to see a showing of Plan Nine from Outer Space on campus. I assumed that it was going to be an evening of campy fun, but this fellow really liked that pathetic movie, not in a "this is so bad that it's good" way, but with real appreciation.

Afterwards we went out for pizza, and it was clear that he was one of that all-too-common species of grad students who was very smart in his field but utterly stupid in everything else. As we got ready to leave, he said, "Your place or mine?" I was astounded, because there was no chemistry between us, and I had been acting distinctly unenthralled with him, so I said, "You go to your place, and I'll go to mine." He said indignantly, "But I paid for your pizza!"