Seymour Flops
Diamond Member
My information is from an NPR story that I heard earlier this afternoon. I'm sorry, but the link to the subject of the genius bank is inactive on the NPR website. Here's a link to an older story about the Genius Bank:
I'll tell it as well as I remember it. I found it very amusing. I think most of you know of it or can guess what the Genius Bank was from the title. It was featured on the original pilot for Big Bang Theory.
The today NPR story was about a woman named Susan with an infertile husband who wanted to have a baby. She didn't specifically seek out the Genius Bank for a sperm donation, she just found out that it was the most affordable alternative since the founder was subsidizing the fertilizations. She conceives a boy named Nick. Nick grows to be a teenager and one day she sits down with him to ask him what he wants to do with his life. He can't decide. Either a professional wrestler or a rapper. He is not motivated in academics, nor does he pass easily without studying.
Nick reminds his mom much more of his at-home father, who raised him and kept a roof over his head, than his genius sperm donor. According to Susan, at-home dad is something of a "ne'er do well." Mind you, the ne'er do well was good enough for her to jump down and open her legs for, but how quickly they forget.
She decides that the only way that Nick will reach his biologically destined greatness is to know the truth. She tells him the truth: Your dad is not your father, your father is a genius who wanted to spread his superior seed to the next generation, but was too busy doing great things to actually fuss with an actual child.
Nick is intrigued. He never felt much connected to his dad, so now it all made sense. He looked up his "father" at the sperm bank. No identifying information, but his biological male parental unit is a successful lawyer, who worked his way through law school as a graduate level mathematician for NASA. IQ: 160.
Nick somehow figures out a way to find and contact the sperm donor. Mom sees this a Nick finally showing a spark of his innate intelligence and abilities. Nick meets up with sperm-daddy at a hotel in California (smart man not to let his son know where he lives), and finds that his father is very much like him, they get along well, and feels very connected. He tell his father words to the effect of, "I have to start trying harder, now that I know that I have your genes and that you're a genius."
To which bio-father replies "Welllllllll . . . "
Turns out the sperm bank learned the IQ's of its donors by simply asking them. No testing, no verification, and they were offering cash incentives. Bio-pappa doesn't know his real IQ, and in fact blurted out "160" without thinking and then panicked imagining that the sperm bank - being run by geniuses - would be suspicious of the round number.
No problem. Got right by 'em. How 'bout that?
Then Nick says, "but you are smart enough that you're a lawyer, at least?"
"Wellllll . . . "
Bio-father was a lawyer but is now disbarred. He had committed some petty crimes which he attributed to his mental disorders for which he is being treated with a cocktail of psychiatric medications. Nick is happy that he knows to look out for signs of mental disorder and need not be troubled when signs of genius do not appear.
Lesson to learn: I have some ideas, but you tell me what you think, first.
Even though they are statist SOB's with a highly left-wing bent, I love NPR for bringing stories like this.
I'll tell it as well as I remember it. I found it very amusing. I think most of you know of it or can guess what the Genius Bank was from the title. It was featured on the original pilot for Big Bang Theory.
The today NPR story was about a woman named Susan with an infertile husband who wanted to have a baby. She didn't specifically seek out the Genius Bank for a sperm donation, she just found out that it was the most affordable alternative since the founder was subsidizing the fertilizations. She conceives a boy named Nick. Nick grows to be a teenager and one day she sits down with him to ask him what he wants to do with his life. He can't decide. Either a professional wrestler or a rapper. He is not motivated in academics, nor does he pass easily without studying.
Nick reminds his mom much more of his at-home father, who raised him and kept a roof over his head, than his genius sperm donor. According to Susan, at-home dad is something of a "ne'er do well." Mind you, the ne'er do well was good enough for her to jump down and open her legs for, but how quickly they forget.
She decides that the only way that Nick will reach his biologically destined greatness is to know the truth. She tells him the truth: Your dad is not your father, your father is a genius who wanted to spread his superior seed to the next generation, but was too busy doing great things to actually fuss with an actual child.
Nick is intrigued. He never felt much connected to his dad, so now it all made sense. He looked up his "father" at the sperm bank. No identifying information, but his biological male parental unit is a successful lawyer, who worked his way through law school as a graduate level mathematician for NASA. IQ: 160.
Nick somehow figures out a way to find and contact the sperm donor. Mom sees this a Nick finally showing a spark of his innate intelligence and abilities. Nick meets up with sperm-daddy at a hotel in California (smart man not to let his son know where he lives), and finds that his father is very much like him, they get along well, and feels very connected. He tell his father words to the effect of, "I have to start trying harder, now that I know that I have your genes and that you're a genius."
To which bio-father replies "Welllllllll . . . "
Turns out the sperm bank learned the IQ's of its donors by simply asking them. No testing, no verification, and they were offering cash incentives. Bio-pappa doesn't know his real IQ, and in fact blurted out "160" without thinking and then panicked imagining that the sperm bank - being run by geniuses - would be suspicious of the round number.
No problem. Got right by 'em. How 'bout that?
Then Nick says, "but you are smart enough that you're a lawyer, at least?"
"Wellllll . . . "
Bio-father was a lawyer but is now disbarred. He had committed some petty crimes which he attributed to his mental disorders for which he is being treated with a cocktail of psychiatric medications. Nick is happy that he knows to look out for signs of mental disorder and need not be troubled when signs of genius do not appear.
Lesson to learn: I have some ideas, but you tell me what you think, first.
Even though they are statist SOB's with a highly left-wing bent, I love NPR for bringing stories like this.
