Buzz
"Learn something new every day," says Kathleen, speaking of life with me. If she were only a bit younger, she could learn five things a day at least, if she hooked up with Nate Mattison, a recent graduate of Byram Hills High School in Westchester. According to Peter Applebome's story, "A Teenager Who Actually Does Know It All," Mr Mattison (headed for Yale) has won a place in the Hall of Fame of the Academic Quiz Bowl, and he generates a "brainiac vibe." At his age, I knew nothing more than the succession of the kings and queens of England (with dates). I still don't know the American Presidents.*
What is it with competitive quizzes and spelling bees? They seem to have come out of nowhere. When I was a boy, such contests were dying institutions, or seemed to be - a mistaken impression, evidently. I was pretty good at spelling bees - I remember the words that I flubbed, such as "committee" and "buffalo" - but I don't remember anyone conducting after seventh grade, and even then they weren't the big deal that they had been. Unlike today's bees, the competition was confined to words that an educated person might use, not the rarities, such as "oppidan,"** that would litter the film, The Bee Season, if it were really about spelling bees.
But The Bee Season is about the Kabbalah. I think. Kathleen rented it last night. I can't recall seeing a more pointlessly mystifying movie in my life. Eventually, I realized that it is just the Jewish Da Vinci Code. The performances were all superb, but trying to figure out what was bothering Juliette Binoche's character - well, I'm not sure that I ever did. And the hole Hare Krishna tangent reminded me of The Serial, a far more genial film.
*I'm okay from Washington to van Buren and from Cleveland's second term. I'm sound on Buchanan through Hayes. How about you? (Assuming, of course, that the matter has any relevance.)
**Unrecognized by my spell-checker, this term can mean "urban" or "townsman." You'd think it would come in handy, just for variety's sake, in my neck of the woods. It doesn't.
Comments
What you need to know, the bare facts, the things you should know cold like the times tables and the rest of simple arithmetic, the spelling of common words, simple geometry, the correct use of the English language in conversation and writing, the general flow by significant dates of Western and World history over the last five millennia, a few good English poems, Christian Bible Verses, Zen Koans, and a few more items when reduced to print on standard paper is in my best guess a stack of paper about a foot high, a mere five reams of paper, just twenty five hundred pages. These are just the facts, not the source materials nor the connections, the former would take a few feet of book shelf and the latter runs the presses, the media and the INet full tilt everyday, but I think twenty five hundred pages would hold all the base level facts, if you ever did reduce them to print. Mr Mattison has apparently mastered this and much more. The real question is does he have the ambition, the undistracted energy that achieves results with grace, to make the connections between the facts. Spelling Bees and Academic Quiz Bowls cover the facts, life is the competitive quiz for the connections. I can reliably do the U S Presidents in my lifetime, within the last century and the first three Presidents. I still have to look up the rest, most embarrassingly who preceded and followed Lincoln.
You failed to mention the best definition of "oppidan"
certainly one you might have to wait for the right opportunity to use but it will be worth the wait I'm sure.And speaking of connections, you've never said anything about Kushner's Angels in America until the other day in your quick mention in connection with Meglioranza's performance. Did you put Nichols's version of Kusher's play on your revised Emerson's movie list?
Posted by: George![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.portifex.com/DailyBlague/nav-commenters.gif)
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June 25, 2006 04:33 PM