'Bred Crumbs
02.17.04
American Histery
09:53 PMI have a sickness: I must know what every commuter around me is reading. This morning, the young woman I loomed over while standing on the train downtown was looking over some kind of study sheet about American history and government, maybe for a citizenship test. Questions and answers were listed in English and Chinese, and the woman would cover the answers with her hand as she read down the page.
One question was:
Who is the head of your local government?
I expected the answer to be "The mayor," but it turned out to be more specific – and more wrong:
Mayor Frank Jorden.
Two problems: "Jordan" isn't spelled that way; and Frank Jordan hasn't been mayor of San Francisco in eight years.
At least that 49th-and-50th-states question was up-to-date.
Later, closing in on Berkeley, a college-age (and, I noted, left-handed) guy was sketching a lean, buff, shirtless model out of an all-male photo magazine.
I watched closely. You know, to make sure there weren't any mistakes.
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