Years and years ago, long before a certain Senator invented the internet, even before Grease was ‘the Word’, I had a fight with my Father and my Grandmother.
I had come home from Elementary School and like many other days they asked me what I had learned. That day’s class had been about the three states of water, vapor, liquid and solid. During our talk, I commented in my youthful wisdom that snow was a solid. Being born and raised in California, snow always seemed a bit mystical to me and I had paid particular attention when the teacher talked about ice crystals -- we even made paper snow-flakes.
My father assured me I must have misunderstood. Snow was soft and not hard and so could not be ice. He went on to explain to me that snow could become ice, but that happened after it fell when it got colder.
I bring this up, because it really did take me years to come to grips with the idea that my father simply wasn’t going to be able to understand certain concepts. His world was in many ways more real than mine, but it was also based on personal observation. Snow might start to melt and then with the drop in temperature refreeze or snow might become compacted and more ‘solid’. His world wasn’t simply empirical, it was to steal a phrase, impirical. Historically, he certainly wasn’t alone in presuming that matter had more states then we now know.
I think that is why Buzz never much bothered me. I understand that Buzz is from an older world where ‘common sense’ rules. His worldview is just different enough that we shouldn’t expect him to just get it. My father would never get snow, unless he could first get the states of matter.
I wonder if Buzz could be restricted to certain forums? Perhaps if he was kept away from the more hard science topics he would be able to fall within the guidelines?
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