The world is flat, No word yet on the accuracy of evolution, though Options

[*mipadi*]

I used to work in a hardware store in the middle of central Pennsylvania. For those who don't know, central PA is a very rural area, and most of the customers at this hardware store were, in a word, rednecks. I used to work with this 22-year-old guy. He was the paint department manager. He was probably one of the most intelligent people I know. He went to college to study music, but after two years realized he didn't want to be a musician; so he dropped out and came home and got a dead-end job for this small hardware store that I eventually worked for.

He and I had the same problem: The hardware job didn't really challenge our talents very well. Most of the time we were bored, which resulted in our pulling numerous pranks on unsuspecting coworkers using the hardware at our disposal, as well as ruminating on various topics. One of his pasttimes was engaging in discussions with the customers, most of whom weren't as knowledgeable as they pretended to be.

I no longer work at the hardware store, but that guy does. He's a manager at a different store now, but has the same clientele--as well as coworkers. I visited him and his family the other day (his daughter turned 1 yesterday) and he told me a story about a discussion he recently had with a customer and an underling at his store.

The discussion was about evolution. He doesn't think evolution is accurate (a point we disagree on), and got into a discussion with a customer who did believe in evolution. The customer argued that evolution is an accepted science, to which he countered that, at one time, it was accepted that the earth was the center of the solar system and the world was flat.

At this point, the coworker, in an attempt to sound smart, interjected, "I don't believe that."

"Believe what?" my friend/former coworker asked.

"That the world is flat."

"Well, that's good. That theory was debunked several centuries ago."

"I mean, if it was flat, then how did it get to be round?"

[Smoogrish]

What a silly guy. I love how people try to act smart. Like me!