bluegargantua (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bluegargantua) wrote2010-12-08 09:41 pm
bluegargantua) wrote2010-12-08 09:41 pm
Entry tags:
[AMTv1] He did well on the verbal portion of the SAT...
Hey,
Continuing to work my way through volume 1 of the autobiography of Mark Twain. Lots of amusing anecdotes, but the following is particularly fun.
Mr. Twain is the best speller in his household, but has some difficulties with spatial geometries (which is odd considering his years as a steamboat pilot). His house in Hartford CT has a long driveway and a round cul-de-sac of sorts allowing carriages to turn about. Looks a bit like so:
-----------o
h
So the driveway is the dashed lines, the roundabout is the "o" and the "h" is his house. Mr. Twain is being driven back to his house. He sits on the right side of the driver. They go past the house and as they approach the roundabout, the driver is about to go to the right (go counter-clockwise about the roundabout). Mr. Twain is concerned about this. He realizes that if they continue on, then when they come back, Mr. Twain will exit the carriage opposite the house instead of right at the door. Therefore, the driver should go to left (go clockwise around the roundabout) so that he will wind up exiting the carriage at his door (he will exit on the side of the driveway with the house).
The driver laughs and happily obliges him knowing, as you probably do, that it really doesn't matter, Mr. Twain is going to have to walk across the driveway to reach his door when he gets out. But this strikes Mr. Twain's mental blind spot and he has the driver go out of the driveway, turn around and try it two more times before he gives up. He accepts that he winds up on the wrong side every time but has no idea how it occurs.
He could be putting the reader on and yet it's a mental failing that seems just plausible enough that I believe it. If he is joking, he's proving his mastery of his craft once again.
later
Tom
Continuing to work my way through volume 1 of the autobiography of Mark Twain. Lots of amusing anecdotes, but the following is particularly fun.
Mr. Twain is the best speller in his household, but has some difficulties with spatial geometries (which is odd considering his years as a steamboat pilot). His house in Hartford CT has a long driveway and a round cul-de-sac of sorts allowing carriages to turn about. Looks a bit like so:
-----------o
h
So the driveway is the dashed lines, the roundabout is the "o" and the "h" is his house. Mr. Twain is being driven back to his house. He sits on the right side of the driver. They go past the house and as they approach the roundabout, the driver is about to go to the right (go counter-clockwise about the roundabout). Mr. Twain is concerned about this. He realizes that if they continue on, then when they come back, Mr. Twain will exit the carriage opposite the house instead of right at the door. Therefore, the driver should go to left (go clockwise around the roundabout) so that he will wind up exiting the carriage at his door (he will exit on the side of the driveway with the house).
The driver laughs and happily obliges him knowing, as you probably do, that it really doesn't matter, Mr. Twain is going to have to walk across the driveway to reach his door when he gets out. But this strikes Mr. Twain's mental blind spot and he has the driver go out of the driveway, turn around and try it two more times before he gives up. He accepts that he winds up on the wrong side every time but has no idea how it occurs.
He could be putting the reader on and yet it's a mental failing that seems just plausible enough that I believe it. If he is joking, he's proving his mastery of his craft once again.
later
Tom