What the Twelve-Year-Old says:
Ummm. Dad. I'm not advancing to the next round of the geography bee. I was asked this question about this lake I'd never heard of with lots of uranium deposits near it. And I guessed Russia but it was Canada.
What the Twelve-Year-Old means:
I came in third of the 450 seventh-graders in the geography bee, but only two seventh-graders get to advance to the school final round.
I'm told that translations from the adolescentese become much, much harder as they become full-fledged teenagers...
:-)
Posted by DeLong at January 08, 2003 03:25 PM | TrackbackWell, good for him! Considering the dismal condition of geography education in this country third out of 450 is fantastic!
And Brad, as they become full-fledged teenagers, they just don't talk. You are looking at about seven years of "huhuh" "DAAAD!" "Nuthin'" and, my favorite: (looking over shoulder with nasty glare, sarcastic tone of voice)"suuure."
The good news is, they grow out of it as they step into their twenties.
Posted by: Emma on January 9, 2003 07:13 AMAh, yes, Emma.
Russia seems rather a clever guess. I would have guessed South Africa.
Anne
Posted by: on January 9, 2003 12:33 PMNot only was I fabulously articulate as a full-fledged teenager (way back in May 2000), but when I was in seventh grade I won the school geography bee. Albeit I was only competing against a group of ninety other students, but we'll ignore than for now.
Seriously, though, congratulations...and what was the name of the lake.
Posted by: Matthew Yglesias on January 9, 2003 02:07 PMGreat Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories / Nunavut?
Posted by: Erich Schwarz on January 9, 2003 10:49 PMDr. DeLong, you miss the point, which is that adolescents don't WANT to be understood. If they did, they wouldn't be adolescent. I believe it was Matt Groening who published a few years ago in "Newsweek" a parody, "SullenTeen Magazine" ("Price $2.95 -- Go Shoplift Something Else"), which included a list of "Twenty Obscene Movies You're Not Supposed To See" and helpful hints on "How to Blackmail Your Parents By Threatening Suicide".
Posted by: Bruce Moomaw on January 10, 2003 08:09 AMAm I the only one who thinks the son might have got it better than the father? The son says he did not succeed and reports the question he didn't know. The father is interested in his son's ranking in his class. Which piece of information is really more important? What does this say about the son? and about the father?
Posted by: Helene.Boucher@wanadoo.fr on January 10, 2003 11:16 PMHelene, wouldn't you agree each party reported the piece of information that concerned them the most. Brad's 12-year old was disappointed at losing the geography bee. Brad is nevertheless proud of his 12-year old's performance in the bee (as I would be, if I had a 12-year old.)
What does this say about the son and the father? Damned if I know. But I recall from my own adolescence that by my mid-teens I was thoroughly disgusted with any public expression of parential pride in me. I think that by the time the 12-year old become the 15-year old, Brad will have to confine his compliments to his son to private, lest the 15-year old become completely uncommunicative. But I'm only working with one data point, so....
Posted by: Curtiss Leung on January 11, 2003 08:55 AM