How to get to the Olympics, Singaporean-style.

I heard a National Library Board representative speaking to two young men, today.

The NLB staff member remarked of one of the men that he was carrying a lot of sports-related books.

"Do you like sports?" he asked him.

"Yes.", the young man answered, in a way that indicated he wasn't much of a talker.

Then the NLB staff member turned to the man's friend: "How about you? Do you like sports books?"

He didn't give a direct answer. He just pointed to his friend and said: "He is in the Olympics.", as if to say, 'I am not in the Olympics and so don't have a right to read sports books.'

The NLB staff member laughed. "Well, if you read lots of books about sportsmanship, you can be in the Olympics, next year."

I thought this very funny. Only in Singapore could it be opined that you could read your way to the Olympics. It is a bookish nation, in some ways, indeed, in a very particular way, in which it is believed that the answer to everything is to be found in books. (That is, you don't have to think for yourself, just find the right book.)

I didn't fail to notice that the NLB staff member doesn't know the frequency of the Olympics and believes it to be an annual event.

So, now you know what to do. If you want a Gold Medal at the London Olympics in 2012...just go to the library. The right book is bound to be there somewhere.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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