Word: dum
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...DUM DA DUM, DUM?...
Psychologist Robert Sternberg's first field study in intelligence took place in grade school, when poor scores on IQ tests convinced him he was a "dum-dum." Largely thanks to an exceptional fourth-grade teacher, Sternberg managed to shed his self-doubt, improve his grades and go on to attend Yale University, but he never shook the sense that traditional tests are missing something. "You don't get to the top in life just on your IQ points or your SAT score," says Sternberg, now a professor at Yale and president of the American Psychological Association (APA). "You have...
Indeed, Dragnet could use even less Dragnet. It was a mistake to keep the "dum-da-DUM-dum" theme, now irrevocably ironized, and the voice-over, while not so intrusive as Webb's, moralizes too much. There's no need to persuade us that a cop finds serial killers repellent. But as you settle into the show's rhythms and well-crafted plots, you forget these glitches. You could almost be watching Law & Order...
...comedy a young man's game, like skateboarding or sex? Writing jokes, creating droll characters--these take ambition, ingenuity and energy, and after decades of devotion to this voracious muse, a fellow can get pooped. He still knows the rhythms (ba-da-dum or ba-da-bing) but has run out of witty variations. He's vamping, working from the Catskills version of muscle memory. His obsession is just a job; he's confecting comedy not from inspiration but from habit...
...while we’re on the subject, what’s with breasts anyway? Yes, yes, lactose factories specially designed to feed your little bundle of goodness, but that won’t be an issue for eons. Right, guys? For now, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dummer sit there unaware that there is a job to be done. Attracting guys at a party, arguing my way out of an overdue book fine, getting an extension on an extension for that killer 2 to 3 page paper from my not-quite-27-year-old TF—until...