I want to know, are we really as dumb as we are portrayed in segments of Jay Walking on The Tonight Show?  They show these average Americans and ask them questions that I guess they figure most people would know.  Sometimes they show photos of people that we should all know.  I don't know if people are acting because it's their chance to be on TV or what.  I like to think that is the case and that we as the American Society are not that bad.  I am by no means calling myself a genius nor do I think I am better than anyone else.  However, if shown a photo of Tony Blair I would know who he is.  I can find the states of the US on an untitled map, and I can find most countries on a map.

I guess we only have our own background upon which to draw.  Throughout school I studied hard and planned for and went to college.  The same with everyone I knew back then.  It was what was normal to me.  I guess that’s why I expect most people that grew up here to have the same basic knowledge as me.

With that said here was the icing on the cake for me.  When I was working at the zoo I was walking past our Madrills.  I heard a guest say “Look!  It’s that extinct monkey!”  First of all, the word monkey should be used loosely.  Sure they are part of the Cercopithecidae family which makes them part of the old world monkey family by definition.  However, they are more like baboons than true monkeys with tails.  I can overlook that as I’ve heard other not so smart things come out of guests regarding the animals.  But what I could not let get by me was the extinct part.  I must have been having my male period because I walked right up to them and said, “Do you understand what the word extinct means?”  I did not give them a chance to answer as I said, “It means there are no living members of this type of animal left, they are all dead and gone.  Since you’re looking at a living one I guess they must not be extinct.”  Then I walked away.

I know I should not have done that but at that moment in time I did not care.