True stories
Lettuce = Potatoes
Pity my poor programmer trainees
I walked up behind my new trainee from New York City, looked over her shoulder, and said, “Oh, NO!” She replied, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” I said, “Nothing. You’re doing great. I just felt like saying ‘Oh No’.”
We lived in the middle of farm country, Indiana. One morning, I said that I planted my lettuce and potatoes last night. She asked, “Does lettuce grow underground?”
Me, “Yes… How did you know?” Her, “I didn’t know. How do you pick it?” Me, “A plow flips the heads out of the ground, a fork-thing puts it into the truck, and it’s shipped to a plant, washed and sent to the stores. You ever get one with brown streaks?” Her, “Yes.” Me, “It was under ground too long.”
I returned later that day from a meeting and with a frown she said, “LETTUCE DOES NOT GROW UNDERGROUND!!!!” She had been telling everybody all afternoon she just learned that it did, until someone set her straight.
She was never sure about any non-technical thing I said after that day. She also said that she learned more about computer programming from me in 2 months than in the prior year and a half.