Thursday, January 10, 2008

Waiting for Mensa to Call...

This year I got a page a day calendar, and it’s put out by Mensa. Imagine the joy of getting up each day to a pop quiz. What fun.

Whee.

The first three days however, I gave it a shot and you know what? I did it.
What a rush.

The first day I solved the problem, I felt like “Hello, I’m Super Mom and me and my magnificent brain thingy are going to solve all your problems. Ask me how to go from COAST to SLIDE in seven steps, changing only one letter each time and each time making a word. Go on…Ask!”

No one asked.

The second day, I solved the math pattern problem and got the answer right but the method wrong. Close enough I thought. I GOT THE RIGHT ANSWER. Sherry G. Antonetti…supra genius. I like the way that rolls out….Sherry G. Antonetti….supra genius.

Reality hit back hard when the toddlers found the left over Christmas wrapping paper and unrolled it to get the cardboard tubes. Hey Genius the mess seemed to mock, how to you clean this up?

On the third day, it was a Tom Swifty and though I unscrambled all the words correctly, when it came to phrasing, I got it wrong. Being a Supra Genius, I said, “Who cares?” And then to prove the point, I wondered, “Why do Tom Swifties exist at all?”

The next two days were the weekend and I didn’t get to the calendar. Come Monday, it was a word problem. I hate word problems. I got it wrong. I tried to justify my answer. It was still wrong. Still, my record was 3-1-1 so I was shaken but not out of the genius running.

Yesterday. A pattern question. I spent all day puzzling over this one. All stinking day. When I finally checked my answer and got it wrong, I declared it a cheat test of my intelligence if they don’t give all the rules. When my husband looked at the puzzle and remarked “That’s tough.” I casually let slip, “Oh, it’s every letter that is made of only straight lines.” I had my reputation to maintain.

It has become an epic battle just to know what day of the week it is. I dread being given yet another chance to prove my ignorance on a daily basis, but I go back to it, just as surely as I do the super hard Sudoku. Today's puzzle, a letter problem.

"Place the same three-letter word in each blank below to make three different words."

_ _ _ ANT
_ _ _ DON
_ _ _ URE

Maybe there's a B-Team for Mensa.

By the way, the answer, (I looked on the back), is TEN --Get it, today's the tenth. The Supra Geniuses of the world are sniggering at my piddly intellect.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a serious question: what is the answer to the Mensa Page-A-Day question for January 8th? I recycled mine too quickly and it's driving me crazy!

Thanks in advance!

brian

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sherry said...

Okay. The January 8th question was: In a souvenier shop, the prices are set according to the owner's whim. An airplane costs 12cents, a doll, seven, and a top, five. According to this system, how much will a wagon cost?

Answer: 8 cents (it's the 8th), vowels are 1 cent, consonants 2.

Unknown said...

YOU ARE SO AWESOME!

I gotta tell you, though, the more of these Mensa page-a-day ouzzlers I do, the less impressed I am with that organization.

Larramie said...

Why, of course, the answer is TEN. It's very obvious, especially when you've handed us the answer. ;)

elasticwaistbandlady said...

That's why I've only ever filled out the application for The Hee Haw Lifetime Fan Club Membership. No pressure or fear of being ridiculed for my low intellect there.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, Mensa is a complete money-making scam. They're self-proclaimed geniuses that make a killing on stroking the ego of anyone that scores "above average" on a generic test. Yes, I was harassed to be a member, and I say harassed, because they continued to send me crap in the mail for a year after taking the test. They want a LARGE yearly membership feel, plus you have to buy all the merchandice (a Mensa yearbook? Please...) not to mention paying to get your picture in the yearbook, etc. It's a money-making venture.

As for the calendar, I'm only up to April 14th, and it's already the second error I've found. (They're actually giving you the wrong answers here... Way to go Mensa.) That's about a 1.7% fail rate on their questions, after HOW many self proclaimed geniuses looked at/proofread/edited this thing?

The answer to the one about the gloves is 6, not 5. Today's answer is 37 cents, not 47 cents.

Anonymous said...

Well, someone's a bit cynical... I'm thinking either failed the Mensa test, or genuinely can't afford that whopping $52 per year (that's over three whole months of World of Warcraft!)

Leaving a comment is a form of free tipping. But this lets me purchase diet coke and chocolate.

If you sneak my work, No Chocolate for You!