The professor, whose full-time job was being director of the local planetarium, brought a very nice telescope to class with him one evening about three weeks into the class. There was a particularly good view of Saturn available at the time, and so after class he set up the telescope and, one by one, each of us (about 150 students) peered through it at the planet. I was tremendously impressed with the sight myself, as were most of the other students. I stood nearby for a while afterward listening as my classmates oooohed and aaahed and wowed as they took their turns.
But then there was this pretty girl, talking to several boys. In a ditzy voice right out of Central Casting, she said -- and I am not making this up, she said it in the third week of a college-level astronomy course:
"So, are all of the stars planets then?"
There was an uncomfortable silence. And then one of her male companions -- and I swear I am not making this up -- said in response:
"Uh, I think the difference is that a planet reflects light, but a star makes its own light. But you might want to ask him." "Him" being the professor.
Sigh.
I must ask for an upgrade of my cultural reference library on this BTW:
In a ditzy voice right out of Central Casting *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Ditzy, I assume you know? Stupid and airheaded. "Central Casting" is a Hollywood-inspired term -- basically, if you're looking for the stereotypical villain or ingenue or another one-dimensional fill-in-the-blank character, Central Casting will send over someone to fit the bill. Central Casting is actually a real casting company for extras, stand-ins and so on, but the name has come into wider use for stereotyped characters....
