24 October 2008

A humorous anecdote about Jean Harris

Jean Harris was mentioned in an Atlantic article. I had to look up who she was. In short: headmistress of a Virginia girl's school who in 1980 murdered her lover, Herman Tarnower, creator of the Scarsdale Diet. Convicted, sent to prison. More details here.

So, what do you do while incarcerated if you are a headmistress (and magna cum laude from Smith College)? She noted that visitors' day at the prison was disorganized, apparently because the guards had to look up visitors names on a jumble of clipboards. She approached the guards and offered to help:
"Please let me have the list and I'll arrange it alphabetically for you."
And the guard's reply? Wait for it...
"It won't do any good, because they don't come alphabetically."

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