For those of you who thought that smiling at the deaths of people with double-barrelled surnames was possibly a one-off in crassness for occasional Guardian hack Kia Abdullah, I am sorry but she seems to have form...
From May 2010 comes this terribly self-indulgent piece about taking the MENSA test which includes this:
Kia Abdullah has her own website, for she is a writer. Here are some clips that I found there; do you find them as amusing as I do?
"Pretentious, moi?"
From May 2010 comes this terribly self-indulgent piece about taking the MENSA test which includes this:
'Being a petite 5ft1in has its advantages: I always have plenty of leg room on long-haul flights; I can buy clothes from the cheaper teenage ranges on the high street; and I can usually extricate myself from difficult situations with a well-placed smile.Yes Kia, we get it, not only are you a genius, you are also 'petite', a '28-year-old woman who can lead or command' and 'beautiful'. What you did not mention in this people is that you also think it funny when people with 'double-barrelled surnames' are killed in a crash...
On the other hand, people often assume that I'm young, dumb, or a bit of both. First glances show long hair and big eyes, not the first-class computer science degree or the two published novels. First glances prompt people to ask if I want a child ticket at the cinema, or if I have a young persons railcard on the Gatwick Express; they don't show a 28-year-old woman who can lead or command.
...
I decided to sit a Mensa supervised IQ test. If I passed, I would get a conversation-friendly way to broadcast my genius, and if I failed, then maybe I could finally get rid of the chip on my shoulder. The test came back with a score of 150 and an invitation to join the "top 2% of the population".
Instead of feeling smug, I immediately felt embarrassed. The whole exercise suddenly felt cringingly self-indulgent. Intelligence may be a more respectable pursuit than beauty but I felt as uncomfortable about joining this smart-people's club as I would joining one for beautiful people.
...
Even the narcissist in me refuses to believe that I'm more intelligent than 98 people in a random group of 100. And if I am, why on earth aren't I a big-shot executive doing something smart rather than sitting cross-legged on my bedroom floor, merely writing about being smart?'
Kia Abdullah has her own website, for she is a writer. Here are some clips that I found there; do you find them as amusing as I do?
She's so cute I could let her off...just this once.
ReplyDeleteIf there were such a thing as an E.Q. test (Ego Quotient) Kia would undoubtably also be in the top 2%. And she'd brag about that too.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with people with First Class Engineering Degrees seemed to indicate that they knew their subject, but precious little outside it.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that this rule applies in other specialities as well.