Famous Zamour Academy

[Orthography Enthusiast]

Golly.



I just finished reading the PDF of "The Authorized Al"... and then I discovered that four different web pages list Al's supposed childhood enrollment in the Famous Zamour Academy for accordion studies as a FACT. And one of the web pages is from Stanford University.



I'd call that an astoundingly successful joke. Who'd have thought they [Tino Insana & Al] would be able to pull that much wool over such erudite eyes?



Presumably they [the Stanfordites, et al.] also believe that Al spent a bunch of time in the Alps with that famous French singer, Jean Jackette (who was always blue). Somebody flunked Fact-checking 101.

[CatraDhtem]

I just finished reading the PDF of "The Authorized Al"... and then I discovered that four different web pages list Al's supposed childhood enrollment in the Famous Zamour Academy for accordion studies as a FACT. And one of the web pages is from Stanford University.

But....but.....it's in a book, so it's gotta be true, right? Right??



Sigh.....and I usually take pity on those who think "This is Spinal Tap" and "The Blair Witch Project" were real, but this....

[Orthography Enthusiast]

Sigh.....and I usually take pity on those who think "This is Spinal Tap" and "The Blair Witch Project" were real, but this....

I took a second look at the Stanford page, and I may have been too hard on them. After all, the rest of the page is full of wacky. zany stuff like

It has the chemical formula C5O2NSH11, and is one of the two amino acids containing sulfur. The sulfur atom, however, is bonded to two carbons, so it is unable to form disulfide bridges, in contrast to cysteine. For 10 points, name this amino acid, coded for by the codon AUG, which signals the start of translation.

so they may have just been spoofing the spoof. What do you think? :lookround:

[scottidog]

Gee, OE. That *IS* wacky and zany. Anyone want to translate for me?

[Orthography Enthusiast]

Gee, OE. That *IS* wacky and zany. Anyone want to translate for me?

Sure. Glad to. It's about chemistry.



There, that's the best I can do.



The spurious Weird Al question and the sulfur-whatever question were both part of something called "College Bowl, the 'varsity sport of the mind.'"-- the questions were used in academic quiz contests held between competing universities. I'm even more amazed that something written for a hoot in The Authorized Al turned up as a fact in this context. I guess it's true that you can fool all of the people some of the time. Well, at least they got to pay really high tuition bills as part of the experience.



BTW, the place where Al really took lessons, and later taught, with occasional moonlighting as Accordion Repo Man, was called the Accordion Conservatory. I don't think it exists any more. Maybe they figured, "We'll never have a more illustrious alumnus, let's quit while we're ahead."