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Are you ever shocked to find that you don't know everything?


Road Runner
Go to solution Solved by MoseySusan,

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I am.  This morning I was doing a crossword and came across a rather simple looking word that I have never heard or seen before.  It was the word "areaway".  Without Googling it, do you know what an areaway is?  BTW, my spellcheck doesn't like it as well, so I'm not alone, I guess.  :)

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I looked it up. My guess was close. But only because I'm familiar with a skyway and because I read the word as area way instead of are away, which is a sense-making skill that many second language learners and struggling readers...struggle with.

 

 

 

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As a scientist, I've been trained to realize I don't know everything.

What I'm not trained for is the frustration that so many people can't just say, "I don't have a clue," and try to sound authoritative when providing information they know nothing about.

It was Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, who tried to prove the Oracle of Delphi was wrong when she named Socrates as the world's wisest man. He spoke with respected political, military, technical, etc. people looking for proof.  Then, he said, he realized the Oracle was right: he was the wisest man because he was the only one who realized how little he knew!

My BiL and I bought a 21' pleasure/fishing boat, the "Reel Busy," with a 210 hp V6 inboard/outdrive engine, knowing nothing about keeping it docked in a marina.

By the end of June around 1999, instead of 50 mph on a calm Chesapeake Bay, we were lucky to get 20 mph.  Everyone "knew" what the problem was: the fan belts, something else with the engine - even though it ran great, the propeller, the stabilizer fins that stick out from the left and right stern, etc. etc. etc.

On the 4th of July, a locally-popular rock band of a friend of my brother's was playing at some rich guy's party at his house on the water.  We and about 30 other boats anchored off the property to listen to the band.  I pulled alongside the boat of another friend of my brother's who was very Bay-savvy.

He said to me, "I bet you're not getting much more than 15 mph with your boat."

I asked him how he knew that and he replied, "You've got way too many barnacles! You should have biodegradable anti-fouling paint on your hull!"

We drydocked the boat and I spent a week of vacation very carefully scraping and sanding barnacles off the hull without removing the gel-coat.  I then got $50/gallon gray, biodegradable, anti-fouling paint and covered the hull up to a little above the water line with two coats of it - with the old guy running the drydock giving me great advice from time to time as I worked.

We were back to 50 mph and no more barnacles.  That fall, we moved to a "boatel" where the boat is kept out of the water except when you want to use it.

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I have been doing crosswords daily for about twenty-five years.  I have seen a lot of words and learned quite a few new words in my early days, especially recurring crossword "words".  But every now and then, the crossword makers will amaze me with a word that it would appear that I should know, but don't. 

Areaway would make a good Jeopardy question.   :)   

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