Mary Ann Evans

The only country music I like is Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.

That is what you could have heard me say around the turn of the century. The funny thing about that, is that I didn't actually know who Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard were. So, how did I know that they were good country music? Plagiarism. I had heard someone whose opinion I apparently valued somewhat say something to that effect, and I thusly took it on as my own country music creed. I don't really know why... to prove how eclectic and awesome I was... to show that I had something in common (potentially) with a large number of Americans... to demonstrate my "openness" to outside ideas... to show how knowledgeable I was... etc. These are all possible, and I wish I knew why I did it, but in any case, I did.

Have you ever said something that you heard from a credible source, and just repeated it verbatim as your own opinion? What brought this to my attention was something I did this last Saturday.

I was conversating about music with some folks on our Ultimate Frisbee team. Somehow we ended up talking about Funk, which I am partial to. In an attempt to demonstrate my vast knowledge of Funk, I cited some of my "favorites". Along the way, I mentioned "Miles Davis in his more funky years". The conversation continued, moving to concerts and then probably to sex, as that is the way conversations all go...

Anywho, later that evening, I broke out laughing... why?

Where the devil did that come from? Miles Davis' more funky years? Don't get me wrong, I know who Miles Davis is (or was rather). I even own a bit of his music. However, I have no clue what was meant by "Miles Davis in his more funky years". Thinking back to when I had heard that bit of info, I remembered a previous conversation with someone about Funk. He asked me, upon learning I had a good-sized record collection and liked Funk, if I liked "Miles Davis' funky stuff". So, rather than be the ignorant fool, who says, "uh, which stuff is that?", I just said "yeah, that stuff is ssenssateews" or something along those lines. Apparently, I convinced myself then and there, 'cause here I was telling people how much I liked it.

So, what are the drawbacks of being a spineless, yellow-bellied lemming like myself?

Perhaps another story will illustrate...
My last semester at BYU, I was attending a meeting for the lab I worked in. I was shootin' the breeze about Computational Biology with a new CS professor who had done his graduate work at M.I.T. He was eager to apply his expertise in Dynamic and Intelligent Systems to interesting biological problems.... I told him pretty much all I knew about an emerging field called Systems Biology, and he asked if I knew of some articles or people working in that area. I told him "Bernhard Palsson is a leader in the field and is one of the few people doing real Systems Biology, and not just talking about it." Wow, that must have made me sound way smart... if I were this M.I.T. graduate, I would probably listen to what this genius had to say! Hot damn, he must really know the field! What followed was almost as awesome. Instead, he replied: "What does that mean?"

The problem was, I was pretty much directly quoting a line from an email I had received shortly before that from one of the true masterminds in Computational Biology, Dr. Sean Eddy (this I know firsthand, I swear!). Unfortunately, I hadn't yet had the time, nor did I have the background knowledge to know what the crap that really meant. I sort of stumbled and said "he is just actually doing systems biology, not just talking about it." At the end of an awkward silence, I for some reason suppressed that memory... until last Saturday.

Will I learn my lesson? Maybe. But if not, as I've always said: "O may I join the choir invisible of those immortal dead who live again in minds made better by their presence; live in pulses stirred to generosity, in deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn for miserable aims that end with self, in thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, and with their mild persistence urge men's search to vaster issues."