Imagine my annoyance then, when the news of this Madoff Ponzi Scheme broke. If you haven't heard about it, some guy named Madoff (pronounced Made-off, which is an irony I can't stop reveling in) stole billions (yes, with a b - which makes my teeth hurt) of investor dollars over the past decade or so. I am not so annoyed with the story itself as I am with the fact that I had no idea what a Ponzi scheme is.
That fact by itself is not so annoying. If someone came up to me and started talking in Polish, I would have virtually no idea what any of their words meant. This is due to the simple fact that I don't speak Polish. It would be completely normal for me to ask for an interpretation. What annoys me about the whole Ponzi thing is that, as the reporters were talking about the details of the story, not one of them deigned to explain what a Ponzi scheme is. They just chattered on as if what they were talking about were common knowledge, like they were discussing bread or socks.
I don't like to not know things that are common knowledge, since not knowing common knowledge seems to indicate being substandard in some way. I can't stand being substandard, especially with words. So I looked up the meaning of the term from the source of all truth: wikipedia. Here it is, in case you are interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_schemes
Now that I know, I am once again at peace with the world. But not knowing made my drive home from Fort Collins decidedly. . . annoying.
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