What I Learned This Week

I continue to pick up new tidbits of knowledge when I give presentations. Here’s what I collected this week:

Rotary International has a goal of eradicating polio. There are four countries to go: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. This will be the second disease eradicated, the first being smallpox.

From the exalted to the mundane. Here are three facts I heard: 1. A flink is twelve or more cows. 2. Duct tape was originally called duck tape. 3. It’s illegal to carry ice cream cones in your pocket in Kentucky. Go figure.

But my favorite for the week was this. After a presentation, a man came up to me and said he had graded my talk. He held up a piece of paper with a large zero on it. My first reaction was thinking to myself that people had laughed and enjoyed my speech, so I asked him to explain. He said, “I keep track of how many times a speaker says: um . . . ah . . . and . . . You had zero. Good job.”