Week 4 entry...
This kid I went to high school with was insanely, freakishly smart -- and boy oh boy, did he know it.
Now, this statement would normally be followed by some tale about how superior-acting and "I am the most awesome creature to have ever walked the earth" annoying he was. Yet that was the really odd thing about John -- he actually wasn't the egotistical asshole he easily could have been. He knew how smart he was, absolutely; hard to be called into serious research conversations with your physics professors and not realize you were something special for a 16 year old. He just didn't seem to think it actually meant anything. He'd tell us to ask him anything we needed to know, not to prove how brainy he was, but simply because, well, he almost certainly would know the answer and he loved helping people out.
Remember that scene in Akeelah and the Bee, where Akeelah's at her very first bee, and the Dr. Larabee character just begins asking her to spell random words, each harder than the last, even though she's already won the bee? That's the type of thing you could do with John, and it was amazing to see how long he could keep going.
"Who was the vice president for the 12th president of the United States?"
"Convert the number 389428 base 10 into base 3."
"Who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980?"
"Which 14th-century realm was ruled by Lord Greenbottom Rat Crapper?"
(I may have made that last question up, but you get my point.)
So imagine my surprise when one day, I actually knew something John didn't. We were at yet another Knowledge Bowl competition on some random weekend, (Before you ask, yes, I was in Math League, too -- I was a wee bit of a geek.) In our district's implementation of Knowledge Bowl, you had four people on the team, any of whom could hit the little buzzer strip when they thought they knew the answer, but only one person could actually give the answer to the judges. We rotated the position around to whoever wanted it in any particular match; more often than not, it was simply the last person to say 'not me' when asked 'who wants to be speaker.' For this round, John was the chosen one. A question would be asked, someone would hit the strip, we'd confer for a few moments (I think you had 20 seconds), and then John would give the answer.
The judge looked down at her papers, shuffled the top sheet to the back, and then asked "Contrary to the literal meaning of this bird's name, it is not actually imploring the listener to murder Bambi."
My fist came down so fast on that strip, I believe I may have heard Mr. Sulu say "Warp 8, aye Captain" in the background.
I turned to John and said "It's a killdeer."
He just stared at me. "You've got to be kidding me."
"No, seriously, it's a killdeer -- just say it."
"There is no way there is a bird called a ki-"
"JOHN! Just answer it! Trust me."
And true to his non-asshole-ish nature, John immediately turned to the judge and calmly said "Our answer is: killdeer."
"Correct," said the judge.
In the scheme of stuff that happens to you in a lifetime, this was really a pretty small thing to put on your running list of "Things I'm Kinda Sorta Proud Of"... but yeah, I admit, that one's on my list.
This is my entry for the fourth week of Season 8 of therealljidol. The prompt this week was 'what does narcissism have to do with me.' As always, thanks for reading.