Allow 6-8 weeks for delivery, please no C.O.D.s

There is a difference between learning something and memorizing it by rote.

Let's try an exercise: I want you to get up from your computer and find the person nearest to you who was raised in the United States. If they wouldn't mind, have them recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Go ahead, I'll be here when you get back. (I guess if you're alone, you can do it yourself. But hurry up, Heroes is about to start.)

Back? Okay. I'm willing to bet serious money that, if they complied with your strange request, it came out sounding like this:

"I pledge allegiance - to the flag - of the United States of America [longer pause], and to the Republic - for which it stands - one nation - under God - indivisible - with liberty and justice for all."

It did, didn't it? Why? Because that's how they were taught to say it in kindergarten, with those big gaps. Because they memorized it by rote. They didn't learn it, they were taught to repeat it and never, ever thought about what they were saying.

This is what happens when you memorize something as opposed to learning it. When you memorize something, it stays in its original formation in your head, and becomes much more difficult to come up with in any other shape.

Which is why I often get this deluge of information when people are trying to get a pizza delivered:

"What's your address?"
[in one breath] "3125 Archer Street, Apartment 2-F, Dickinson, Texas, 77539."

Now. You want to argue that the city is justified, go ahead -- we only deliver in this particular town, but there are several little wide spots in the road in our vicinity, so it's feasible that we deliver to them.

But the state? How big do you think our delivery area is?
"How long will it take to get a pizza delivered?"
"Where are you?"
"Oklahoma."
"Um...about twelve hours."
"All right then. You need my phone number?"

But the truly fabulous one, to me, is the ZIP code. The ZIP code? Are we going to mail you your pizza?
"How much is a supreme pizza?"
"$15.99, plus $4.95 for shipping and handling."

Of course, most people don't even realize what a ZIP code is for. And it doesn't occur to them to not say it, just as it doesn't occur to them to not tell me what state they're in. When they moved to wherever it is they are, they couldn't just remember their address, so they had to memorize it, like a kindergartener, in one big unbroken block. Why?

Because they're idiots.