Besservisser? Maybe

I'm not a know-it-all, though I am pretty certain some people perceive me as such. If there are things I don't know, I don't pretend I do. If there are things that I'm not sure about, but may have read something about, I'll say so, and if I'm proved wrong, I'll absolutely stand down. And most some of the time, if someone is just babbling about something they know nothing about, I'll let it go. I wish I could do that more often. Because sometimes I KNOW I'm right, and I just can't force myself to drop it. If I could, I would eliminate a lot of conflicts in my life. I mean...I'm Swedish enough that I really dislike conflict. But does that help me in that situation where someone is acting like they know all about a subject that is my major area of work and study? Sadly, no. Please, if I do that to any of you out there, don't take it personally, and don't think I'm trying to be a smarty-pants, because I'm not. Not much, anyway. ;) It's more a matter of living among really intelligent people who know A LOT and finally I have found something I know about too. Or, sometimes it's finally losing patience with someone who seems like they could be smart, but they let themselves be completely dense or unaware of life that goes on around them, like the idiot woman in Zambia who, among a group of eclipse-nerd astronomers, asked, "What's the Milky Way?" in her singsong-ditz voice. Luckily, Lennart stopped me from saying anything more than, "It's the galaxy we live in." in the are-you-stupid-or-what voice.

Lennart's good at keeping me from going too far, most of the time, which is useful at parties. See, being an introvert, I suck at small talk. So when it gets to a subject I know something about, I babble. I hear that I'm babbling, and yet, I can't stop it. And when it comes to someone else talking out their hat about a subject on which I actually know something, I REALLY can't stop it, and I start bringing up studies and articles that support my statements. And I know this does nothing to win friends and influence people. But recently, I read an article in the Smithsonian which shows me that I am not alone. And that's a bit of a relief:

Moonstruck