He’s From Iowa, But He Works In Outer Space
(We are assigned homework to research famous people from our home state of Iowa, to give a five-minute presentation. I have totally forgotten this, and thanks to the power of the alphabet I am called up first. Panicking about getting a failing grade, I decide to take a risk and totally wing it about the only famous person from Iowa that I know of.)
Me: “Today, my report is about Captain James Tiberius Kirk.”
(I look directly at my teacher, and breathe a sigh of relief when I don’t see a glimpse of recognition.)
Teacher: “Captain? So, you’ve chosen a military figure?”
Me: “Yes, but I chose him because he was captain of a ship that was more famous for its exploratory missions.”
Teacher: “Please, continue!”
Me: “His ship was called The Enterprise. He wasn’t the first or last captain of this vessel, but he is by far its most famous captain. As I said, it was primarily an exploratory ship, but it did have its fair share of battles. His most famous known tactical move was called. ‘The Corbormite Maneuver.’ He also helped negotiate peace with a mining team who had inadvertently started excavating where the locals lived and raised their young. If it were not for him, there would have been a deadly battle between them and the natives, but he was able to make the miners see the locals as intelligent beings that were worthy of protection.”
(I continued in this vein, and easily could have gone for more than the allotted five minutes! My teacher gave me an A and was none the wiser. I’m very thankful for inheriting my parents’ encyclopedic knowledge of fifty-year-old episodes of “Star Trek”!)
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