Knowledge is Knowledge, Right?

For anyone that doesn’t know I work in a call center here in Provo doing customer service. People call up to ask questions, sign up new accounts, and place orders. The company I work for likes us to try to “personalize” each call to ensure that each customer has a good experience and to avoid “dead time” on the call (extended periods of silence). We’re encouraged to talk about anything except religion, politics, marital status, and the weather. (Saying, “How’s the weather where you are?” is not considered “personalizing.” The other topics can be touchy or divisive.) I usually try to bring up where they are from, especially if I’ve been there or know something about it. This is my go to because even though I haven’t been to a ton of different places I am a junky for useless trivia so I usually know a tidbit about the city or state where a person is calling from.

This morning I was taking an order from a lady. After she had told me the products that she wanted I was getting the order set up. I confirmed her shipping address which was in Hot Springs Arkansas. I’ve never been to Hot Springs, or Arkansas for that matter, but you can bet your boots that I knew something that I can only hope will win me some money on a game show sometime in the future.

I said, “Isn’t Bill Clinton from Hot Springs?”

She said somewhat excitedly, “Yes, he is!” Most people like it when you know something about where they’re from (especially if they’re from Texas). Then she continued, “You must be a history buff.”

It would make me look very scholarly if I could have told her that I knew that from reading Bill Clinton’s autobiography, read it in a New York Times article, and seen it on a History Channel Documentary, or at the very least gotten it from a Wikipedia entry. But no, I learned it from this:

That’s right, I know that Bill Clinton is from Hot Springs Arkansas because I saw it in an episode of King of the Hill.

I didn’t want to lie to her so I told her I saw it in a TV show. I explained that the main character was from Texas and was driving through Arkansas and when he saw the sign he immediately locked his doors. She thought that was pretty funny and we shared a good laugh. I did leave out the part that it was a cartoon.

I had a similar experience about a year ago that involved me knowing that the Dallas Cowboys used to hold spring training win Wichita Falls Texas. The old lady was tickled to death that I knew that (note she was from Texas) but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that I learned it from an episode of King of the Hill.