Locked down with my Ukulele 35

These are strange times and as a teacher I have to reflect on the difference between thick and stupid.

I posed this to my colleague’s and independently come up with the following reflections (to the best of my recollection).

Thick- Unintelligent because incapable. Blissfully unaware of how lacking in knowledge they are.

Stupid- Capable but actions indicate that they, either temporarily or permanently, are unable to use intelligence.

Basically you can’t blame someone for being thick. They know no better. You can blame someone for being stupid. They know better but don’t use the intelligence they have to perform better.

I looked it up to see how close we came:

Thick- of low intelligence; stupid.

Quite unforgiving I think!

Stupid- having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

The common sense bit speaks volumes, me thinks!

I’ve seen another quote that bring balance to the statements.

“We are all ignorant; just about different things.”

I have seen this attributed to two different celebrities:

1) Mark Twain (actual born name: Samuel Clemens): Famous for the authorship of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was said to be a humourist. Which is said to be someone who acts speaks or writes in an amusing way. Or a person who tries to please or amuse, lampooner, parodist - mimics literary or musical style for comic effect.

He would appear to have been quite good at it.

He died in 1910

2) Will Rodgers: (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American stage and film actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humourist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator.

As he was an adult when Twain died I not going to argue if the quote belongs to him or Twain.

It is true though. You can’t assume that just because someone knows lots they have a knowledge of everything. Just as you can’t assume that a University Professor is capable of living life without support. I’ve heard that some with great academic abilities can not boil an egg.

I am aware that I am capable of great stupidity. I think you can be forgiven for doing something stupid. But, its less forgiving if your just being stupid.

It does also depend on your point of reference. How do you measure someone’s intelligence? An example. Take an Elephant, a fish, a cat, a dog, a seal, a Penquin, an ape, a bird, and a dog. Then measure intelligence by the ability to climb a tree. Who is going to win that one!

Then think about changing the perspective to who can swim. Fish has aced it but the seal and the Penquin are serious challengers.

I just wouldn’t want to be the Elephant in either room.

Somethin’ stupid. Frank and Nancy Sinatra 1967.

This was also famously covered by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman in 2001.

I’ve been trying a version of this on the ukulele. Not including into and outro there are 87 cord changes and not all these are easy. Hence the trying and not playing! It would be stupid to stop trying to get it down.

It is a lovely song.

Stay safe