Ability

There's nothing like watching a bunch of little kids spelling words I've never even heard of to make me feel dumb. Sure, I may have gone to college and have a degree in medicine, but that little 13-year old geek just spelled a 6 syllable word that I probably couldn't even find in the dictionary. Hell, I couldn't even cheat because I wouldn't know where to even start to look it up. And all the clues this little kid needed to spell the word was a few obscure facts like the language of origin and an alternate pronounceation. Frickin'-A.

That little kid's brain would run circles around mine in a head-to-head contest of any sort. If only we could only harness this untapped super geek brain power for something good and useful, like finding a way to lower gas prices.

A bunch of us surgical residents were sitting in the physicians lounge inbetween cases, watching the highlights of the recent spelling bee on ESPN. While all of us were sitting around feeling stupid and outdone by a bunch of 8th graders, we couldn't stop but notice that the majority of the kids were of Indian descent.

Resident A: You notice that almost a third of the kids up there are Indian?

Resident B: Yeah man, [motioning towards an Indian resident in the lounge] what's up with that?

Resident C: Dude, we're naturally smart.

Resident A: Yeah, whatever. Then why is it that you're an orthopod?

Resident B: [Motioning towards Resident C] Actually, you know what it is? Your names are spelled so friggin strange that you've got to be a spelling expert just to get on with your lives.