Book-smarts vs Street-smarts

The educated Doctor and the smart Auto-repair man

(All you Apprentice fans out there, this post has nothing to do with it)

Book-smarts vs Street-smarts. This has been one of the age-old (can I call it that?) questions. Well, I would love to have the best of both worlds but my parents chose to educate me and I am yet to reach a level good enough to call myself a street-smart. Anyways, here's the funny(?) part.

An auto-repair man had a habit of telling the doctor jokes whenever he met him. One time, he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: "Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?"

Indulgently, the doc lifted his right hand and made scissoring motions with his first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, "Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them." Then he said smugly, "I've been trying that on all my customers today." "Did you catch many?" doc asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew for sure I'd catch you." "Why is that?" doc asked.

"Because you're so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn't be very smart."