I recall being in grade school and taking exams called the Stanford Achievement Tests. The questions were varied and some have stayed with me through the years as with other exams I took in high school and college. One of the kinds of questions designed to measure some sort of logic or aptitude was of this type -- 'A is to C as B is to D'.
We have enjoyed the recent discovery of Pink Panther movies by our grandson J. He is 11 and the humor of those wonderful movies spans the years between him and his grandparents.
I concluded, (based upon the wisdom gained in elementary school), that Inspector Clouseau is to police work as George W. Bush is to ______. (Fill in the blank)
A. The Presidency of the United States
B. World Peace
C. The environment
D. All of the above.
8 comments:
Except the problem with that comparison is that Clouseau is actually sort of an "idiot-savant" if you will, so genius in his ineptitude that he usually solves the case by the end, even if by accident. GWB unfortunately doesn't have the "savant" part to fall back on.
Is it your suggestion then that the Clouseau character is smarter than Bush?
Consider this...
Clouseau: [chatting with Scotland Yard about sniffing out Dreyfus, who now has Europe's most infamous hitmen working for him] Of course it won't be easy; nothing worthwhile ever is. That is why I have always failed where others have succeeded.
That's pretty good...
Clouseau has something that about him that makes him enjoyable to watch. Bush....not so much.
Hmm...hard to say for sure who is the smarter man...but one could argue that Inspector Clouseau has the edge because at least he is bilingual (since he speaks English with a very heavy accent...)
I read once early on in Bush's first campaign for president that he had some unusual mental abilities. When he arrived at Yale and was accepted into the rich boy's fraternity he learned the names of all of his frat brothers, some 150 of them, in one week. Very astonishing and quite important.
Recall in one of the opening scenes of "Return", where Clouseau has been busted from being an inspector of detectives to a uniformed officer walking the beat. A bank robbery is in progress and the look out man is in disguise as a beggar with a parrot. Clouseau assists the robbers with their getaway. The chief inspector grills Clouseau. His question to Clouseau is insightful to our discussion. We can ask how can an idiot be a police officer? The implication of course is how did W become president?
Dreyfus: The beggar was the lookout man for the gang.
Clouseau: That is impossible. How can a blind man be a lookout?
Dreyfus: [Insinuating Clouseau] How can an idiot be a police officer?
Clouseau: Well, all he has to do is enlist...
Dreyfus: Shut up!
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