2483 Things & Stuff, & Photos

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Laurence J. Peter: “If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind,
what is the significance of a clean desk?"

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Nice day. Becs reminded us all today that when you have the first beautiful day in two months of rain, you'd best take advantage of it. I took her advice and walked.

I parked in the middle of the village, and walked a mile to a little hamburger joint with super french fries, and then back. Yeah, I rewarded myself with half of a small order of french fries, and two tiny "slyders", which eliminated the calorie-burning aspect of the walk, but left the bone-building advantage, so I figure I still made out on the trade. So hush.

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I read somewhere that the guy who killed the guard at the Holocaust Museum, James W. von Brunn, was a member of Mensa. I also heard that Theodore Kaczynski (the Unabomber) was a Mensan. I went to the members-only section of the American Mensa website and looked for both of them on the membership list. I didn't find either, but, unfortunately, the lists contain only current members. So who knows.

The person who wrote the article mentioning that both were Mensans expressed surprise that people who were supposed to be so smart could be so stupid. He/she said, "I prefer to think of bigots and extremists as being less intelligent than myself."

I don't know if von Brunn and Kaczynski were Mensa members or not (although I'm certain Kaczynski would easily have qualified, and von Brunn was a talented artist, see an example of his work here), but I see no contradiction if they were.

IQ tests evaluate one's ability to see patterns, solve puzzles, interpret information, synthesize and extrapolate, and draw conclusions. It doesn't test one's social development, sanity, emotional maturity, or the validity of one's belief system.

It has been my experience that with many Mensans, and most of the card-carrying gungho ones, whatever their individual quirks, beliefs, or interests are, including bigotry or extremism, they tend to go overboard in that direction. Think Trekkies or Furries, with wider interests and no costumes (unless you want to consider ugly T-shirts and mixed plaids a costume).

So, yeah, I don't know that it's true, but I could believe it. I see no conflict.

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Photos from my walk:

The village main street. I wanted to show all the huge trees. There are some really nice Victorian and Queen Anne houses, too. Lots of flowers. It's a pretty village. That's not just a village street, actually. It's a main north-south US highway system route. The same route goes past Daughter's house in New Jersey.


This sign was in the hamburger place. It's old, I guess, and it amused me that something from an earlier era was so ripe with innuendo. I wouldn't have expected that. [Update - see comments.]

I blanked out the name of this church. Don't want non-residents rushing in to apply for camp. I guess this is what happens when you leave the sign up past its drop-dead date. (Click to enlarge.)
Speaking of dropping dead, I tried to get a picture of the "two for one" sale sign at the granite cemetery memorials shop down the road, but I guess that sale is over. They were recommending them as Mother's Day gifts.
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