Facetious Foolishness 5/06/09

A snob has to spend so much time being a snob that he has little time left to meddle with you.

William Faulkner
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Hello. Anyone there?
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SNOB: n. a person who believes himself to be an expert or connoisseur in a given field and is condescending toward or disdainful of those who hold other opinions or have different tastes regarding his field, as in "a musical snob." (Webster)

I don't like snobs and I stay clear of them as much as possible. A snob is like a spider who considers himself near or at the top of the food chain as far as all other insects are concerned in his little patch of the forest. One of the unfortunate traits that characterizes most snobs is that they have no sense of humor about themselves, nor about anything else, as far as I can tell. And some of them are incapable of understanding how a lower class street kid, like myself, could possibly know anything about or appreciate fine music. We're just not intelligent or sensitive enough. Right?

I worked for a time at a major market classical music station. We certainly had our share of snobs perched in their various trees, listening, waiting for something to disturb their webs. The radio station published a magazine listing the programs and containing articles about music and musicians, Whichever personality was on the air when the commercial for the magazine came up was asked to ad lib a one minute sales pitch for it. When my turn came I would talk about the articles and how much information could be gleaned from reading the magazine, A few times I ended by saying "It will even make you a better snob,,if that's what you really want to be."

Naturally the phone would ring and some irate listener would complain. The complainers, I soon found, were the snobs out there whose little tender toes had been stepped on. I remember talking to a few of them. One tried to correct my pronunciation of an Italian opera title. He was wrong, but wouldn't listen to me. He told me that he knew better because he was a Physics professor at the local University. What Physics has to do with opera titles escapes me. Another tried to inform me that when pronouncing the name of the German city Munich I should give it the German "ch" as in "Ach." When I told him that in German the actual name of the city is "Munchen" he hung up on me. He was not pleased. But that's okay. I had just helped him become a better snob.

I don't hate snobs. They have their place in the world. For one thing, they generally support the arts, I just don't want to associate with them. I'm too much of a vagabond. I'll just leave them alone, at ease with their own cobwebs.

DB
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I'm saying where are you to too many people.