are you smarter than a fifth grader?, rib

I had a conversation at lunch today about that television show, the one about if you're smarter than a fifth grader. I haven't seen it but had heard about it (I love my bloggy friends because if not for you, I would be completely out of touch with popular culture). I said that my problem with those shows is that sooner or later, I am going to be in Sweden and someone is going to angrily make a point about how Americans are stupid, and base it on this television show, that I have had a dozen conversations just like that. Someone asked if people would actually say that sort of thing, and.. well, yes. I'll add now what I didn't bother saying then, and that is that the conversations I have had along these lines are a) not all with Swedes and b) generally with people who are my friends and not just M's, so it's not like I am accosted by foreigners and c) generally while under the influence of some fermented beverage or thirty. I mentioned the little scenes that Jay Leno does, where they ask "average Americans" completely stupid questions and make fun of them for getting them wrong. (I am convinced that these are mostly fake.) M and I talked about it later tonight, and he claims that the reason people get so confrontational about it is that they don't DO that sort of thing on Swedish television, so if you see it, it's an American show. Okay, fine, but his reason, and the point of this whole paragraph? He summed up his theory by saying, "Swedes don't make fun of the mentally handicapped, so these people must be what average Americans are like." *snort* God bless America, and those kindly Swedes who never make fun of people.

We went to the big store that offends so very many people tonight in an attempt to buy some stuff that we need for the duck. Okay, what we really wanted to buy was a mattress for the crib, and some sheets so we could make the bed. They did have a mattress but it was crappy and not nearly good enough for our wee little one (argh, we are going to be awful, but I guess not so awful that we can't shop at the big store that offends so very many people, so perhaps it's all good.) We struck out on most of the things that we were looking for, but it's kind of okay since it was largely a fact-finding mission.

Rib Update: worse today than yesterday. I was afraid of a repeat of Tuesday's festivities, but it just settled for hurting. That's certainly not optimal but it is at least better than the alternative. I guess I will take it to bed and hope that it feels better tomorrow.