Light entertainment folks, roll up roll up

1 in 20 Americans don't know when 9/11 took place.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060809/od ... 0809145351

7/11

[Bob]

Not exactly, Hom. You were in the 7/11, being open 24/7, during 9/11. 10-4?

Not exactly, Hom. You were in the 7/11, being open 24/7, during 9/11. 10-4?

With Elvis and Lady Diana

Cedric reports that "1 in 20 Americans don't know when 9/11 took place."

I don't find that any more difficult to believe than I would expect, say, one in 20 Brits to know the date of the London underground attacks. Or one in 20 Spanish citizens to know the date of the train bombings.

OK sathorn, no need to get upset. But if you are asked this question: "when did 9/11 take place?" what would your reply be? Given that in the question ,lies a little clue. :cheers:

OK sathorn, no need to get upset. But if you are asked this question: "when did 9/11 take place?" what would your reply be? Given that in the question ,lies a little clue. :cheers:

But you forget Cedric, everywhere in the world there are the 'Paris Hilton' types who make up a small, if overly visible and audible percentage (possibly the 1 in 20). If it isn't happening to them, it isn't 'happening' and so a question such as 'when did 9/11 take place?' would not only mean nothing to them in terms of terrorist attacks, it wouldn't even register that this was a date.

Used to be that the 'dumb blondes' had some form of talent Marilyn Monroe, Goldie Hawn even our own (brits) lesser bimbo in the form of Diana Dors had something about them that was more than a low IQ, blonde hair and a sexy body (or big tits), now you have Paris, Jessica, and again our own Jade Goody or to a lesser extent Jordan, they get rich(ish) and famous based on nothing but appearing in the press @ events or by getting 'caught' with their tits out.

Come on, almost 90% of the Netherlands is blonde, and I bet ya that that same number would answer, nege/elf natuuuuuuuurlik!
I think what you are referring too are bottle blondes, my guess is that they might not have a clue.

Paris Hilton is slut and not even a very well off slut at that, I can see perfectly well why her little Greek tycoon called of the engagement. The family fortune is being held in a trust by a bunch of Catholic nuns, what little the grandfather got and what's left after he pops is divided amongst the masses, though I believe the nuns still retain by far the greatest chunk. She is no more than a working girl, doing tables for a shot a time. She is lucky if she even gets a couple of million from her family's 'fortune', never mind a husband that can keep her in baubles.

[Aunty]

Well I'm really thrilled that Paris Hilton aspires to be like a couple of other well known blonds of the modern age, Marylin Monroe and Princess Diana. And I hope for all our sakes she turns out just like them. Dead, and at a young age.

Instructed by Cedric and others who offered comments, I decided that I needed to learn more about the poll. My starting point was the link to the Yahoo news site (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060809/od ... 0809145351). It was a short account, dated Aug. 9, that said that the report was published in the Washington Post. It also noted that "The Post telephone survey was carried out July 21-24 among 1,002 randomly selected adults."

I first went to the Post website and searched for the original post article but I was unable to find any link to the story. I then performed Google and Yahoo news searches. Both came up with the same link Cedric posted. There were also about a half-dozen other hits, but they all sourced back to the same news item from the French news agency "Agence France-Presse" (AFP). I was beginning to get a bit suspicious: why could I not find a reference to the poll at the Post site? why had no other news agency picked up on the story?

What I did locate was a reference to an article published in the Post on Aug. 9 that described a poll of 1,047 persons, stating that "Sixty percent of Americans oppose the U.S. war in Iraq and a majority would support a partial withdrawal of troops by year's end..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00405.html

I stopped by the local library and reviewed hard copies of the Post for the day the article was reported by AFP (Aug. 9). I also checked the editions on the day before and day after with negative results.

I believe that Cedric came across what was an amusing news item that made a certain percentage of Americans look stupid and posted it. Fair enough. Although I still contend that if you ask Brits five years from now what year the underground bombings occurred, you'll get similar results (even if you give them the month and day), I can appreciate the appeal of the story (the bimbo, Paris Hilton factors). What troubles me at this point is not the results of the "poll" but my fruitless efforts to date to confirm it and trace it to its source.