I was smart today. But so were other people

Just thought I’d brag a bit. I got every answer right on Slate’s weekly news quiz! Which I haven’t done in awhile, or maybe ever.

I didn’t rush myself, which helped — but cost me points. Still, I scored higher than the average, and higher than the Slate staffer who was the designated guy to beat this week.

But not much higher. They did well, too. Which suggests maybe the questions were just unusually easy this week.

Check it out and see how you do…

10 thoughts on “I was smart today. But so were other people”

Norm Ivey December 4, 2020 at 10:26 pm

I’m really sorry to rain on your parade, but I also got them all correct (first time), and I did it slightly quicker than you. I think the questions were unusually easy this week. My score was 502.

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Brad Warthen Post authorDecember 7, 2020 at 3:57 pm

It doesn’t surprise or disillusion me a bit to learn that you did it “slightly quicker” than I did. In fact, I’m tempted to call you a slowpoke for only doing so “slightly,” if that’s not just a case of polite modesty.

I never, ever do nothing nice and fast.

Anyway, congrats!

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1. Brad Warthen Post authorDecember 7, 2020 at 4:06 pm
  
  Just reading the question probably takes me longer than it takes most people to read the question, read the choices, make a choice, and move on.
  
  It’s weird, really. In school, I caught onto reading a lot faster than other kids. I can’t remember having to LEARN it; I just remember that I started reading, and that was that.
  
  As a result, when I was in the second grade in New Jersey, teachers used to pass me around and have me read aloud to their classes. Apparently, they wanted the other kids to see how easy it was. Which sort of surprised me. I had gone to a pretty advanced private school in Virginia for first grade — simply because my birthday was slightly after the cutoff for starting public school. It was pretty intense, and I guess I had grown accustomed to higher expectations than they had in public school in Woodbury, NJ.
  
  But maybe I got stuck reading at a conversational, read-aloud pace. Because I read everything just slightly faster than that.
  
  I think it improves my retention, though, to read that slowly…
  
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  1. Brad Warthen Post authorDecember 7, 2020 at 4:10 pm
    
    By the way, today I passed on to my wife a great deal being offered by The Wall Street Journal — which I quit subscribing to years ago because it got so expensive. I suggested it as a possible Christmas present.
    
    Her reaction? “You mean you want to have something ELSE to read every morning?” She means, on top of The State, The Washington Post and The New York Times, plus Twitter, etc.
    
    I take a long, long time over breakfast every day, compared to normal people, you see.
    
    And I said, “Yes,” of course…
    
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    1. Brad Warthen Post authorDecember 7, 2020 at 4:11 pm
      
      By the way, it’s not like I read those papers front-to-back. I just skim them looking for things that interest me, and read those.
      
      But it still takes awhile, because it’s me…
      
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      1. Barry December 8, 2020 at 1:29 pm
        
        I use the News app on my iPad to scan a lot of the top stories from the Wall Street Journal, the times, the post, the guardian, Los Angeles times, and others. I also look at those every morning and usually over lunch.
        
        All free articles.
        
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