Is this getting into mean vs median? Or just that both adults are willing to flatter / support the child by letting her know she is considered well-above-average?
Yeah, unless Miss Plainwell personally knows all the people who have previously solved this problem, it is incorrect to say “at least” — “on average” would be fairer, or maybe “probably” if she suspects this kid of being bright, but to say at least is just wrong (because I’m assuming she has not conducted an exhaustive survey of all those who have solved the problem).
So Frazz’ influence is to play fast and loose with statistics? All to flatter kids into performing? They are getting wise to him? And if they’re getting wise to him, then they must be smart enough to figure out the pedestrian problems of the classroom?
Sorry, actually it should be “on average probably”; if she suspects the kid of being bright, then maybe an “almost certainly”.
Maybe it is in reference to something (I think) George Carlin said (please excuse me if my attribution is wrong.): “Think of how ‘dumb’ the ‘average’ person is. Then realize that half of the people in the world are dumber than that!”
Averages are why reenactors have to explain that everyone in the 1700s did not die at 40. People actually think this despite Thomas Jefferson dyeing in his 80s and John Adams dyeing in his 90s.
Good for you Meryl, that you explain it! This was one of those prevailing myths growing up that I really had to doubt my own sanity when one day I realized that with such high infant mortality, “average” lifespan would skew way down, so that meant that your “average” guy did NOT die at 40 — he either died at birth or in childhood, or else he probably lived into his 60s. It was such an obvious thing to realize, and yet I still had to fight against the exact perception you describe, that everyone died at 40, and 40 was the old 70, and you looked old and you were feeble, and all that. (I’m not denying we live better now, but the fantabulous myth they constructed around a misunderstanding of how averages worked — and insisted on! — it was crazy!)
The best part is that then some indeterminate time later the same people who insisted on this whole confabulated fake life-span suddenly just morphed to a more reasonable story, and denied they ever perpetrated the old misunderstanding! Making it out like I was a) crazy for ever having thought that anyone said that, and b) deluded to think I had made the discovery that high infant mortality would skew the overall average on my own — everyone knows that, and everyone knew that!
I take solace in the story of Steven J. Gould having to bet with a friend about whether dinosaurs lived with cavemen, and the random adult they picked to settle the bet cited the Flintstones or such, and he lost the bet…
Amazing that they’d be so interested in textiles at that age.
Bella Abzug famously noted that the “average” American has one breast and one testicle.
larK – thank you.
You’re welcome Meryl! Keep up the good work! Every time I see local re-enactors, I keep wondering if you and Robert are among them… You ever do gigs at New Bridge Landing, NJ or Old South Church in Bergenfield, NJ?
And unrelated, but Bella Abzug — that just means “Beautiful Exit” in two languages… (Of course “Abzug” is masculine, but never mind…)
Comics I Don't Understand 
Is this getting into mean vs median? Or just that both adults are willing to flatter / support the child by letting her know she is considered well-above-average?
Yeah, unless Miss Plainwell personally knows all the people who have previously solved this problem, it is incorrect to say “at least” — “on average” would be fairer, or maybe “probably” if she suspects this kid of being bright, but to say at least is just wrong (because I’m assuming she has not conducted an exhaustive survey of all those who have solved the problem).
So Frazz’ influence is to play fast and loose with statistics? All to flatter kids into performing? They are getting wise to him? And if they’re getting wise to him, then they must be smart enough to figure out the pedestrian problems of the classroom?
Sorry, actually it should be “on average probably”; if she suspects the kid of being bright, then maybe an “almost certainly”.
Maybe it is in reference to something (I think) George Carlin said (please excuse me if my attribution is wrong.): “Think of how ‘dumb’ the ‘average’ person is. Then realize that half of the people in the world are dumber than that!”
Averages are why reenactors have to explain that everyone in the 1700s did not die at 40. People actually think this despite Thomas Jefferson dyeing in his 80s and John Adams dyeing in his 90s.
Good for you Meryl, that you explain it! This was one of those prevailing myths growing up that I really had to doubt my own sanity when one day I realized that with such high infant mortality, “average” lifespan would skew way down, so that meant that your “average” guy did NOT die at 40 — he either died at birth or in childhood, or else he probably lived into his 60s. It was such an obvious thing to realize, and yet I still had to fight against the exact perception you describe, that everyone died at 40, and 40 was the old 70, and you looked old and you were feeble, and all that. (I’m not denying we live better now, but the fantabulous myth they constructed around a misunderstanding of how averages worked — and insisted on! — it was crazy!)
The best part is that then some indeterminate time later the same people who insisted on this whole confabulated fake life-span suddenly just morphed to a more reasonable story, and denied they ever perpetrated the old misunderstanding! Making it out like I was a) crazy for ever having thought that anyone said that, and b) deluded to think I had made the discovery that high infant mortality would skew the overall average on my own — everyone knows that, and everyone knew that!
I take solace in the story of Steven J. Gould having to bet with a friend about whether dinosaurs lived with cavemen, and the random adult they picked to settle the bet cited the Flintstones or such, and he lost the bet…
Amazing that they’d be so interested in textiles at that age.
Bella Abzug famously noted that the “average” American has one breast and one testicle.
larK – thank you.
You’re welcome Meryl! Keep up the good work! Every time I see local re-enactors, I keep wondering if you and Robert are among them… You ever do gigs at New Bridge Landing, NJ or Old South Church in Bergenfield, NJ?
And unrelated, but Bella Abzug — that just means “Beautiful Exit” in two languages… (Of course “Abzug” is masculine, but never mind…)