Dealing With Stupid People [Monday, June 11, 2nd period]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

Josh leaned up against a desk in the Danger Room, hands in his pocket and a grin on his face.

"President Andrew Jackson, in the main foyer of his White House, had a big block of cheese and I can't believe I'm giving this speech," he began. "He did not, sadly, have a cracker the size of Lake Tahoe. I checked. My old boss, the White House Chief of Staff, used this folksy excuse to make us all talk to total crackpots once a year and today that privilege falls to you."

He waved his hands. "Pick a desk, make yourself comfortable, the computer'll drop someone insane off to talk to you. Try not to laugh in their faces--they're all based on real people. Um, sadly."

Comments

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[notawitch.livejournal.com]

Will coughed and looked away from them.

"So, uh, you had a question or something?"

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"Yes. We'd like to propose the wolves-only roadway," they told her.

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[notawitch.livejournal.com]

Okay, that surprise crazy caught her off guard there. It took a few moments of staring and blinking before Will said anything.

"I didn't know that wolves had cars..." she answered.

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

More humorless staring.

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[notawitch.livejournal.com]

These wolf people were probably the most humourless people Will had met in a good long while.

"I don't think I quite get what you're asking for. Are you guys asking for, like, a paved highway -- just for wolves -- all the way from the Canadian border to Wyoming?"

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"Eighteen hundred miles from Yellowstone to the Yukon Territory complete with highway overpasses and no cattle grazing," the woman clarified.

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[notawitch.livejournal.com]

Will frowned faintly at the idea.

"But, if we're worried about the wolves, wouldn't that just make things worse? It would pave right through their habitat, destroying forrest that they could use to hunt in, and making them easier to spot by hunters when they left the woods for the paved highway. And the construction crews in all these areas would have to bring in heavy machinery for this that would leave a lot of pollution in the area, and scare the wolves and other animals away with all the noises from the tree cutters and road pavers. And there's no real guarantee that the wolves would use the highway and overpasses, instead of finding their own way through the woods. And you'd have to convince the Canadian government to do this too, and I don't know that they'd want a wolf highway from the States running through their land."

She looked back up at the group and smiled politely at them. "I think that it's a great thing to want to protect wolves, but I don't think this is the best way to do it."

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

They gaped at her. "But...but...we want to. It'll only cost $900 million."

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[notawitch.livejournal.com]

She shrugged her shoulders helplessly at them.

"Have you thought about trying to help raise money for conservation groups? You might help the wolves better that way."

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"But that's what everyone else does," she whined.

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[notawitch.livejournal.com]

"Because it tends to work?" Will suggested. "If you have any other ideas about what more can be done to protect the wolves, you can always come back and suggest them to whoever's at the desk here."

Re: Big Block of Cheese!

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"Fine," they said, clearly disappointed. "Thank you for your time."