NPR : The Wrong Guy, Take TwoAs Todd pointed out in his comment about Tuesday's post regarding the BBC interviewing the wrong guy, there's more to the story than was initially explained. The above link to an NPR piece today also connects to a video from the BBC in which the two "Guys" tell their side of the tale while the anchors walk the thin line between professional embarrassment and off-putting humor.
As is usually the case, explanations tend to drain a story of all its fun. I hate to lose the taxi driver image, but oh well. Guy Goma remains a wonderful unsuspecting character who just bulls ahead, come what may. Just think, if he gets the tech job with the BBC he might suddenly qualify as the expert they mistakenly thought him to be. Boy, would that ever torpedo the dickens out of the cultural significance I tried to wring out of this fiasco.
Whatever the details, it is still a great story that has some truths, both humorous and serious, nested within it. Maybe the truth is personal to me, having sometimes been questioned where my "expertise" was assumed by the interviewer, even though way down inside I knew better. I'm sure I've reacted just like Guy Goma when he displayed that great look of shock and then immediately repressed it. I persuade myself that I've kept the look off my face and let it be written secretly on my innards, but who knows.
In the meantime I shall offer a hearty toast to the silent and forgotten "experts" the world around who never get three minutes on network television to express their opinion on things they know nothing about.
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