Sunday, March 09, 2008
News, In this Issue...

“Is Kofi Annan a drink?”

What you don’t know is hurting your country (and amusing our readers)

How Smart Are You?

The people pictured here, Richard Newsom, Renee Contreras, Mark Cameron, John Roque, Leo Markidis, Elton Rawls, Benjamin Davis, Jennifer Nelson, and Seamus Sullivan answered the following questions correctly:

• Is Kofi Annan a coffee drink? (If not, do you know who Kofi Annan is?)
• Who is the head of Al Qaida?
• Name a country that begins with the letter “U.”
• With whom was the U.S. at war during WWII?
• What year did Christopher Columbus sail to the New World?

But, their questioner, news editor Stephanie Ramage, accepted a partial answer for No. 4 (“I was so relieved that they knew it was Japan and Germany that I didn’t press them for Italy. But, most of them did name Italy, too.”). So, the second batch of Sunday Paper respondents had it a bit tougher. Writer Josh Clark asked them nine questions:

1. Is Kofi Annan a coffee drink? Do you know who Kofi Annan is?
2. Who is the head of Al Qaida?
3. Name a country that begins with the letter “U.”
4. With whom was the U.S. at war during WWII
5. About what year did Christopher Columbus discover the New World?
6. What currency is used in the United Kingdom?
7. Who is Tony Blair?
8. What is the dominant religion in Israel?
9. Do you think Americans are generally stupid or smart?

And here is how the people in Josh’s sample did:


Maribeth Gandy, 32, senior research scientist at Georgia Tech

1. No. He’s the former head of the U.N.
2. Osama bin Laden, although I’m not necessarily pleased with that answer
3. Ukraine
4. The Axis; Germany, Japan and Italy
5. 1492
6. The pound
7. Former Prime Minister of Great Britain
8. Judaism
9. I think Americans are undereducated and underinformed. I think it’s mainly a cultural thing. Really, what it comes down to is I don’t think their parents value reading and education and current affairs and that’s passed on to children.

Charles Davidson, 43, writer for the Federal Reserve Bank

1. Not as far as I know. He used to be the executive secretary of the U.N., right?
2. Osama bin Laden
3. Uganda. Is Uganda still a country? Uzbekistan.
4. Japan, Germany, Italy. The Axis powers
5. 1492
6. Now, the Euro. Used to be the pound sterling.
7. He’s the former Prime Minister of England.
8. That would be Judaism.
9. Not really. I may be able to answer most of those questions, but I can’t fix my refrigerator or my car. There’re a lot of guys who could fix those things but couldn’t answer those questions.

Kevin Sluss, 25, Kaplan employee and math student at Georgia Tech

1. No. He was the former head of the U.N.
2. Osama bin Laden. Supposedly.
3. Uganda
4. Technically, the Axis powers: Japan, Germany, Italy. But Italy joined our side eventually.
5. 1492
6. The pound is the main unit, isn’t it?
7. Former Prime Minister of Great Britain.
8. Judaism, I would assume.
9. (Do you think Americans are generally stupid?)  I think everybody’s generally stupid.

Deandre Davenport, 24, employee at Crate and Barrel warehouse

1. No. He works for the U.N.
2. Osama bin Laden
3. Ukraine
4. Germany, Korea and Italy
5. Ah… got me.
6. Pound
7. The dude over there in the U.K.
8. Jewish
9. I don’t think Americans are neither stupid or dumb

Garrett Range, 26, baker at Java Monkey

1. No. No.
2. Not sure.
3. Yugoslavia. Is that a country?
4. Germany
5. 1690
6. Quid and pound
7. The ambassador of the U.K.
8. I wanna say Muslim. (After learning that the answer is Judaism) I knew it was Judaism. My girlfriend is gonna kill me.
9. Generally dumb.

Bennie Foley, 51, teacher of 2-year-olds and author

1. No. No, I’m not a coffee drinker.
2. bin Laden
3. Uruguay
4. Japan
5. 1592
6. I don’t know.
7. Tony Blair is speaker of the house.
8. Judaism
9. I think generally dumb. I think we have our minds on other things, like progress and fast food. All the wrong things.

Salah Anase, 20-ish, DJ and Nina Lott, 40, retail

1. No. It’s the former head of the U.N.
2. Osama bin Laden
3. Uruguay (in unison)
4. The Axis: Germany, Italy
5. 1492. Discover what, exactly?
6. The pound or sterling. Nina: The exchange rate right now is about $2.25
7. Former Prime Minister of Great Britain
8. Judaism
9. Salah: Honestly, stupid. They don’t have to be smart. Nina: Let’s say simple. Apathetic, more so. If it’s not right in front of us, we feel like we don’t have to worry about it.

Erin Carter, 24, Zoo Atlanta public events coordinator and Derek Babb, 29, sound engineer

1. I have no idea. I don’t drink coffee.
2. I don’t know.
3. Uruguay.
4. Japan and Germany
5. Derek: 1882. Erin: Baby! It’s 1492
6. Pounds
7. Erin: Head of something. Maybe al-Qaida. Derek: He’s the Prime Minster of England
8. Hebrew
9. Dumb. They don’t think for themselves. I think everyone’s got potential, they just can’t realize it. Maybe they should live without cable. (Erin and Derek live without cable TV, BTW.)

Toni Sulmers, 22, 3rd grade teacher, Decatur Schools

1. He’s the previous leader of the U.N.
2. I don’t know.
3. Ukraine. Uruguay.
4. Japan, Russia, Germany
5. 1492
6. The pound. Not the Euro
7. Prime Minister of Great Britain.
8. I want to say Jewish.
9. I would say we’re all small-minded, becase what we’re concerned with generally doesn’t go past our borders.

Jason Biggs, 35, AV tech

1. No. No, but it’s a person.
2. Osama
3. Uruguay
4. Germany and Japan…Italy
5. 1492
6. They might have switched to Euro. It was the pound.
7. Prime Minster of England.
8. I would think Christian or Muslim.
9. I just heard China has more honors students than America has students, so I would say so.