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[Transcript of a radio broadcast]


IG NOBELS
reviewed by Bruce Sylvester October 10, 2000

Intelligence is a timely topic right now as our presidential 
debates show how unevenly it can be distributed. Last 
Thursday at Sanders Theatre, intelligence was the theme of 
the 10th First Annual Ig Nobel awards for achievements that 
could not -- or should not -- be duplicated, unlike, of 
course, the Nobel awards on which the Ig Nobels are 
satirically modeled.  Perhaps the evening's most intelligent 
moment came early on when Don Featherstone of Fitchburg, 
winner of the 1996 Ig Nobel in art for his creation of the 
plastic lawn flamingo, spoke briefly on making money off of 
rich people's bad taste.

One difficulty the Ig Nobel ceremony always faces is winners 
who could not or would not appear to accept their award, 
people like Jasmuheen, previously known as Ellen Greve, who 
won the Ig Nobel in literature for her book Living on Light, 
which says we don't really need to eat food though many 
people do. It was pointed out that if we'd all stop eating 
food, we might end flatulence. Now, wouldn't that be nice.

Researchers at Cornell and University of Illinois won the 
psychology Ig Nobel for their paper "Unskilled and Unaware 
of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own 
Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments."  

Three Glaswegians won the public health prize for writing on 
"The Collapse of Toilets in Glasgow." The chemistry prize 
went for the discovery that, biochemically speaking, 
romantic love may be indistinguishable from severe 
obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Since bubble wrap was the official substance of this year's 
Ig Nobels, the audience amused itself by popping it 
throughout the evening, creating ambient sounds akin to old 
vinyl record pops.

On hand were, of course, the king and queen of Swedish 
meatballs, the V-chip sensor, Miss Sweetie Poo, and Ig Nobel 
creator and MC Marc Abrahams, who as ever bid us farewell 
with the words, "Remember, if you Didn't win an Ig Nobel 
prize this year or especially if you did, better luck next 
year." An edited recording of the gala will air on PBS the 
day after Thanksgiving.

This is Bruce Sylvester for WMBR.