Hang on, Stupid! Stupid, hang on!

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Aren't those the opening lyrics of a rock song from the 50s or 60s? I can't think of any of the rest of it but such a cheerful song it was, and the Stupid the song was addressed to was there in a friendly way, like the Dumb in Dumb and Dumber or Mortimer Snerd of the Stupid spoken of in the classic teeshirt "I'm with Stupid." I remember talking with John C. about stupid people in his books in mine, and he confessed he couldn't think of stupid people in his own large oeuvre. I think I've had plenty: Nils, in the Genocides, and Birdie Ludd in 334, and Chappell in the same book, and Ab, who is borderline stupid. And in World Literature there are legions of stupid assholes of all kinds in Dickens, most of them so funny one forgets that they are basically just stupid. And there is the ineffable Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. The English class system is designed to show how to deal with stupid so as (1)to keep them at a distance socially and even geographically, while giving least offense to their relatives, and (2)conveying to others one is aware of their flaws without actually trouncing them--the lesson Emma must learn at the picnic on Strawberry Hill. I was actually on top of that hill with a woman who'd worn the big blocky highheels popular in the 70s. The heel broke off one of her boots as we came down the hill and she had to walk rather a long distance in her stocking feet. Talk about stupid!

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