Literacy test

Without permission, I am stealing this from my cousin (who is not actually named Charlie McDanger, much to his chagrin). It is one of the funniest things I have read in a while (albeit read with some difficulty, of course, as I am the "illiterate" physician below):

As I mentioned at Thanksgiving, the Wall Street Journal enjoys running articles that let you know whether you're literate or not. Here's [an] easy way to test yourself:

WSJ 11/21/06:
"Even the most reasonably literate American may find it difficult to name more than three of the past chief justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. But of those three, one of them will almost certainly be Roger Brooke Taney..."


I sent this to the author of the Roger Taney article...


Prof. Guelzo,

I can say I have new eyes after reading your book review in the Nov. 21 edition of the Wall Street Journal. May I recall here your opening: "Even the most reasonably literate American may find it difficult to name more than three of the past chief justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. But of those three, one of them will almost certainly be Roger Brooke Taney..."

What a marvelous measure of literacy! I ran right off and tried your ingenious little test on my unsuspecting family at our Thanksgiving gathering--a group that included a physician, an attorney, a technical author, a CFA/MBA, a retired professor of chemistry, and several others whom I had, in earlier days, mistaken for literate.

Imagine my dismay when, during the general jubilation, my simple query of, "Who was Roger Taney?" met a stone wall of squinty eyes and silence. Mind you, this is not a family of polite Japanese folk; in fact they are neither Asian nor particularly polite.

Oddly, almost all could name at least four past chief justices; this I will attribute to dumb luck. In any case, I thank you, sir, for letting us know what rubes we are. I think we can all rest more soundly, knowing there are sages such as yourself guarding the doors to the Literacy Club. Keep up the good work.

Yours,
Charlie McDanger

P.S. One of my cousins, an impertinent youth, suggested that the phrasing, "most reasonably literate," was itself questionable with respect to literacy. Only "the most moderately imbecilic halfwit" would compose such a thing, he said. Not to worry; I will punch him in the face.