In the previous entry, I mentioned that Mensans can be pretty stupid. My first introduction to Mensa was pretty stupid. It should have been a clue.
I signed up to take the entrance exam in the late '70s because of an article in Readers' Digest. (Mensa got their largest burst of membership applications from that article, and the snootier folks are still embarrassed by that fact.) The test was given on a Sunday, in a huge Washington DC high school.
When I entered the building, there was a sign on a tripod: "Mensa Testing in Typing Room". No arrow, no room number. Many corridors branching off the center corridor. No people visible. Silence.
First I looked at the bulletin board by the office. There should be at least a floor plan somewhere showing exits and fire plans, right? Nope. So I wandered. Put your left hand on the wall, and walk. That's how you handle a maze. Eventually I'd have to find the room, or a person.
When I finished the first corridor and got back to the doors, there were two more people scratching their heads at the sign.
While we were talking, two men rounded a far corner (they looked like coach-types) and walked toward us. We asked them where the typing room was, and they thought a bit, discussed it, and finally assured us that the typing room was in the basement. "The basement?" "Yeah, stairs are over there." So the three of us went to the basement. We searched the basement. Nobody anywhere. Some labs, but no typing room.
Back upstairs, we found two more people at the sign. They had already checked the corridor I had checked, and one to the right. The five of us fussed a bit - "Anybody see a room with typewriters in it?" "Nope." "Trails of crumbs anywhere?" In an attempt at humor, I said "Gee. Maybe this is the test." They all stared at me, like there was a possibility it was true.
We decided to split up and each take another corridor. By now it was already 20 minutes past the scheduled test time.
A few minutes later, four of us regrouped in the center corridor, having found at least two rooms with typewriters, but no people and no notes on the doors. We waited, but the fifth guy, who had taken the farthest corridor, didn't show.
And didn't show.
Silence.
Lightbulb!
Either the corridor the fifth guy went down has a black hole at the end, or it has the typing room and he's a sniveling #$%^ !!
Sure enough, he had found the room, and had completely forgotten about us. Didn't even mention us to the test proctor. (And over the years, I have found non-think to be widespread among Mensans in general. It's worse in England. Ask me about the 50th Anniversary gathering in London. I demanded my money back from that one!)
In typical Mensa fashion, it wasn't "the" typing room. The proctor had decided the typewriters in the first room were in the way (duh...), so he had moved, also typically leaving no forwarding address. The people who had "found" the right room were there only because they had arrived and joined him while he was in the office getting the room assignment and keys.
They were already 1/2 hour into the first 1 hour segment (there were several parts to the test), so we refused to start late. We went outside until that part was over, then made the proctor stay late to give us the first part.
What on earth was the proctor thinking? He had a list. He knew he was missing at least five people. Didn't he wonder why? Was he thinking?
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Ok. I twisted my arm. I'll tell you about London.
There are many examples of Mensa non-think from the London gathering - I'll give you one:
There were few organized activities in the hotel, the program was almost all prepaid separately-priced field trips around London by chartered bus. The return to the hotel from one trip and departure for the next were scheduled about 1/2 hour apart. Each trip had a trip leader who checked off names and distributed entrance tickets as you got on the bus(es).
Jay and I had signed up for a trip to a science museum, followed by a trip to the zoo.
The trip leader had difficulty pulling people out of the museum**, so our bus was 25 minutes late getting back to the hotel. No problem - we'd pull in behind the zoo-bound buses with 5 minutes to spare, right?
We forgot this was Mensa. The zoo buses had left early, because, and I quote the programs director, "as of five minutes to departure, only like 20 [of the probably 250] expected people had shown up - so they left." (Insert drum riff here.) "So they left"? "So they left"? Nobody wondered where the missing people were? Duh?
There were some very angry people left standing on the curb. Were our tickets left at the Mensa hospitality desk? No - the trip leader took them with him.
Most people wandered off to get drunk. Jay and I took public transportation to the zoo.
Were our tickets left at the entrance booth? No. The trip leader still had them, and he was (insert drum riff here) inside the zoo.
The usual Mensa non-think.
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I see it all the time locally - when the organizer of a restaurant dinner arrives 15 minutes before the scheduled time, finds the restaurant closed and a few other people in the parking lot, so they all depart for a different restaurant, without waiting for anyone else to show up, and without leaving a note on the restaurant door.
Or when the organizer of an event to occur an hour's drive away sends an email canceling the event to everyone who had said they would attend - 1/2 hour before the scheduled event time.
Or when the organizer says it's not necessary to tell him you'll be there - just show up - and a new member arrives at the public place, and there's no way for a new member to identify the Mensa group/table.
Toldja I notice patterns....
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**"Leading Mensans is like herding cats." - Mensa Boutique T-shirt.
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