of a Governing Body . . .

. . . are usually in inverse proportion to the importance of the matter under discussion. As examples of this immutable truth, I offer the workings of any state legislature, any vestry or board of deacons, or the American Mensa Committee and its preoccupation, not to say obsession, with "acts inimical to Mensa."

Are there, so to speak, "misdemeanor" inimicalities, or do such acts automatically rise to "felony" inimicalities? Enquiring minds want to know.

Balderdash, say I (actually, I say a phrase beginning with "b," other than "balderdash")!

Possibly the funniest two-reeler film ever made was Robert Benchley's The Treasurer's Report, the details and point of which are repeated at any chamber of commerce or civic club board meeting anywhere. People involved in civic work, trade association activities and the like are closet masochists. It is absolutely unnecessary for Mensa and Mensans to follow suit.

Mensans belong to the organization because they have proven something to themselves: they passed the test. Some also belong because they enjoy the company of others who have done likewise, though not to the exclusion of other folks, to be sure. Anyone who is so Mensa-absorbed as to eschew the company of the other 98% has, as they say, a "whole `nother problem."

Mensa is one of those organizations that thrive at the local level, where people accept responsibilities for whatever needs to be done because it's "their turn." It's when we consider the larger picture that Mensa becomes less attractive to people such as myself with a very low balderdash threshold.

It's possible, you know, to be in the top 2% and still be a damned fool.

—Charles E. Jones