Editorial note: I got this response to the Geek Test andHall of Fame challenge, and decided it deserved more than a little italic scribble. So here's JK's letter in full:
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 11:26:31 PST
From: John Kimble jgkimble@hotmail.comTo: quarrell@ermine.ox.ac.ukSubject: geek testMy name is John Kimble. I'm a cox at Phillips Exeter Academy (USA).I got a 57, using versions 1 and 2. But here's the thing. I only got three points for the "crew related room decorations" when I have a whole wall in my dorm of crew posters, pictures of all the crew's I've been, fliers I've made to post around campus to recruit kids to row, and a huge old Pocock oar (the captain's oar) mounted on the molding around the ceiling. My room at home has pictures on every wall (blown up, not just normal size.) I've never spent a whole day at the boathouse because they lock it up, but I've been locked in because I was upstairs in the club room staring at the river. I had to set the alarm off to get out. I'm dirt poor, so I don't get points for all the owning crew stuff, which kind of sucks. Hey, I check the Rachel Quarrell Rowing Service page EVERYDAY for news, though I've stop checking Row2k as frequently because I've seen everything at least twice and it hasn't been updated in forever. What else, oh.. there aren't any points given for converting people to crew. People literally run away from me on campus at the beginning of every season because I walk around trying to convince people to try out for the team(I earned the nickname Pocket Dictator). I came to school two days early so I could print up fliers and hand them out to new kids when they registered. I convinced a kid in my hometown (new orleans) to row before he'd even decided to come to Exeter. I got list of the heights and weights of athletes from other sporst to scope them out as potential rowers. I don't have any kids, so I don't get any points for that part of the test, but I put my cousin in a kayak when he was five years old and raced him in short Power Ten races. Then I brought him to school on parents' weekend, and convinced my coach to let him switch places with me (I got in the launch) so that he could try coxing! Now he plays "Rower" games in his room. I asked him 'Didn't he mean "Coxswain"?' and he said, "No, rowers have bigger muscles." So...to sum up. The Geek test is great, but there need to be more recruiting/converting questions, pts. for "when you're not on the water, you're obsesively searching the net for crew info," and maybe some more funny questions directed to coxswains. There some great jokes floating around the web about the effects of long term coxing.Thanks for providing an off the water home :) John Kimble