NBN grew up in awe of the musical ability of Frank Zappa and befuddled by his insistence on marrying such brilliant compositions to such insipid lyrics. Songs like St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast were like drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa. It shows a condescension that permeated Zappa’s off-stage persona and feelings toward people in general.

As senescence calls NBN like a siren’s song, and learning becomes more a burden than blessing, we’re starting to lose patience with the likes of FZ and other “geniuses” so willing to call others stupid. Make no mistake, these insightful folks are fully capable of the blind stupidity they accuse others of. This FZ YouTube cemented that assessment for us. Never mind that the guy smoked himself into an early grave at the same time an avalanche of evidence was making clear he was doing exactly that. Or that he deliberately ostracized an enormous population of potential fans with idiotic lyrics to compositional masterpieces. His real crime was judging people.

To say certain people are stupid is saying you aren’t, and it’s becoming a huge problem these days. Any avid NBN reader, all six of you, probably think we’re guilty of the same crime. So, if it’s possible to set the record straight: NBN is only expressing our opinion in these pages. We welcome and more importantly respect others’ as we try to make sense of the rapidly changing world around us. Obviously different people have different brains and thus different abilities to parse the tidal wave of information we’re bombarded with every minute of every day. The only stupid people today are the ones who think they’ve got it all figured out and that those that don’t agree are somehow less capable of doing so. Boy, that does sound condescending, doesn’t it?