Many, many years ago – in highschool, in fact! – some friends and I were on a trivia team. We actually competed on a nation-wide quiz show. Some of the answers we got, some of the answers the other team beat us to the buzzer, and a couple of the answers we got wrong.
One of the answers I got wrong was about the molecular composition of water. I’d said: “Hydrogen and Oxygen”, but they were looking for the more specific: “Two hydrogen molecules, one oxygen molecule”. Whoops.
In any event, back at school, a boy I never ever talked to approached me in the hallway: “Hey, what’s the molecular composition of water?”
I smiled and said: “Oh, did you see us on TV?”
He said: “No.”
I think about that sometimes. I don’t know what’s more awkward – pretending you haven’t seen someone on TV when you clearly have, OR going around asking people questions about the molecular composition of water.
