True story II (foul language warning)

LAGuy pooh-pooh's his Oscar picking ability, saying he would have scored as high a match if he'd picked at random.

Reminds me of freshman inorganic chemistry at Michigan. (don't read this if you don't like salty language.) Something like 500 kids took the class at a time, more than they could fit into a lecture hall, I think, for the exam, which was 15 questions multiple choice. It was pretty tough; the median was usually six, a nine would pretty much guarantee you an A.

I lived on north campus, Bursley, which meant we had to take a bus to central campus. During the exam, they posted the answers on the wall, so that you could check it when you left. Of course, this meant a crowd of 500 around this single sheet of paper. I figured, screw it, it wouldn't do me any good anyway, since there was some variation from test to test. WHen I caught the bus, I was alone, and when I reached the dorm, it was empty, because everyone else was still trying to figure their score.

Except there was one guy on my hall, in shorts and t-shirt, walking up and down the hall with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, and he's crying.

"Two," he says. "A fucking two. A God-damned monkey could do better."

And given that it was a four choice answer set, of course he was right.