Mensa Convention

[Greybeard]

There was a Mensa Convention in San Francisco recently. Mensa, as you probably know, is a national organization for people who have an IQ of 140 or higher.

Several of the Mensa members went out for lunch at a local cafe. When they sat down, one of them discovered that their salt shaker contained pepper, and their pepper shaker was full of salt. How could they swap the contents of the two bottles without spilling any, and using only the implements at hand?

Clearly, this was a job for Mensa minds.
The group debated the problem and presented ideas, and finally came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer.They called the waitress over, ready to dazzle her with their solution.

"Ma'am," they said, "we couldn't help but notice that the pepper shaker contains salt and the salt shaker has pepper."

But before they could finish, the waitress interrupted."Oh, sorry about that." She leaned over the table, unscrewed the caps of both bottles and switched them.

There was dead silence at the Mensa table.

Kind of reminds you of Washington, D.C., doesn't it?

[MarcSpaz]

hahahaha.... pretty much nails it!

[thekinetic]

Just because someone has a high IQ doesn't mean they have common sense. It's like one day I was with my dad and he was trying to light a grill but was out of starter fluid, so I looked at him and said "why don't you use a blow torch?" to which he laughed and said his dad used to do that to light the grill! XD

[AlanM]

Many years ago a acquaintance of mine that owned and operated a tropical fish and aquarium supply store was telling me his woes of the problems of doing a monthly inventory.
(Required at that time in Ohio. May still be true.)

He said to get an accurate count on some of the more populated tanks he had to net the little fish and temporarily transfer them to other containers and then replace them.

I thought for a minute and asked, "Why don't you just take a Polaroid picture of each tank and count the fish in the non-moving image?"
(This was LONG before digital cameras.)

BTW - My test scores indicate that I'm qualified for Mensa. They actually sent me the paperwork to join. After reading one of their newsletters I decided not to bother.

[Reverenddel]

Bingo on all above!

My Pop drilled into me years ago. "Slow down your thinking, and keep it simple. It's usually the best solution."

As usual, he was right. Trying to pass that along to Co-workers. (shakes head) Ice skating uphill.

[MarcSpaz]

BTW - My test scores indicate that I'm qualified for Mensa. They actually sent me the paperwork to join. After reading one of their newsletters I decided not to bother.

Same here. There is a huge difference between their lifestyle and mine. There is little to no chance of me getting along with those guys/gals.

Getting old sucks too. Had a new test done a few months ago... my IQ dropped 6 points because my memory is starting to go and that is 20% of the scoring. I was pretty disappointed.

[dorminWS]

My mother and a couple of my teachers back when I was a teenager used to try to get me to do something about becoming a Mensa member. Back then, I thought it was too square. and maybe a little bit sissy. At that time the form of gratification I was inclined to pursue to the near exclusion of all else was not intellectual, if you know what I mean. Now it just seems to me to be kind of like like a certain newly-minted "Hospitalist" doctor up at the local bush-league hospital with a brand-new D.O. from a no-name, newly-established medical school that keeps telling people "I'm a doctor". Leaves me with the feeling that if he has to keep telling people, he must not be too sure of it himself. I think most people view "tooting your own horn" with some suspicion. Smart, capable people distinguish themselves much more by what they do than by what they say. Besides, I'd much rather be smarter than people think I am than the other way around (not that I necessarily am, mind you; SWMBO tells me every day I'm a lot dumber than her). Low expectations can be a big advantage.

I probably couldn't have passed anyway.

[AlanM]

BTW - My test scores indicate that I'm qualified for Mensa. They actually sent me the paperwork to join. After reading one of their newsletters I decided not to bother.

Same here. There is a huge difference between their lifestyle and mine. There is little to no chance of me getting along with those guys/gals.

Getting old sucks too. Had a new test done a few months ago... my IQ dropped 6 points because my memory is starting to go and that is 20% of the scoring. I was pretty disappointed.

IQ is equal to Mental Age divided by Calendar Age times 100.
A ten year old with a mental age of a 20 year old has an IQ of 200.
I doubt that that ratio stays that high forever.
As you get older that ratio gets closer to one.
You're not getting less smart, just older.
When I took those tests I was 18 +/- a year.

[MarcSpaz]

hahaha... too funny.

[AlanM]

The right way, the wrong way, the Mensa way.