In August, 2000 I got a sound file via e-mail. It sounds much better (including dramatic background music) than it reads, but in order for search engines to find this piece, here's the transcription:
| Doctor: | "It's worse than I feared." |
| Mother: | "What is it?" |
| Doctor: | "I'm afraid your son has ... the Knack." |
| Mother: | "The knack?" |
| Doctor: | "The Knack. It's a rare condition characterized by an extreme intuition about all things mechanical and electrical ... and utter social ineptitude." |
| Mother: | "Can he lead a normal life?" |
| Doctor: | "No. He'll be an engineer." |
| Mother: | "Oh, no! [crying]" |
| Doctor: | "There, there. Don't blame yourself." |
Download "The Knack" sound file (.WAV format).
About four months after I put up this Web page, I got e-mail from Jonathan Gabrielson at UMR. He wrote:
I happened to stumble upon your webpage with 'the knack' on it. A more complete version of it is on my webpage at [cached location, 1.3 Mb].
I'm still not entirely sure where it came from, but enjoy.
(Thanks, Jon!) There was a clue in Jon's expanded clip. The boy's name is Dilbert. So I wrote to scottadams@aol.com. He sent me a polite reply within a day confirming that it's from the Dilbert TV show. The episode is titled, "The Knack."
2006-08-11 Trading links with Fred Berry.
2007-02-01 Dave Hylands, Vancouver, BC, sent me a link to the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K9lxujiuAE.
Last Updated: 1 Feb 2007
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007. Tim Chambers, web_knack@timchambersusa.com, http://alum.mit.edu/www/tbc 1E4AF729D5CEFFD0. This page is http://alum.mit.edu/www/tbc/hacks/knack.htm. You are encouraged to download, forward, copy, print, or distribute it, provided you do so in its entirety (including this notice) and do not sell or otherwise exploit it for commercial purposes.