Dennis Prager Show - What Were You Like in High School?
Aired: 2024-10-26
Duration: 08:21


=== Diametrically Opposed Experiences (08:11) ===

[00:00:00]  So I have the diametrically opposed experience of yours in high school.
[00:00:06]  I know.
[00:00:07]  All I did was play.
[00:00:09]  That's all I did.
[00:00:11]  I did not do one homework in four years.
[00:00:15]  I graduated in the bottom.
[00:00:18]  What is it, the bottom?
[00:00:19]  20. 20%, thank you, of my class.
[00:00:22]  Top 80?
[00:00:22]  I love saying that at Speeches, folks.
[00:00:25]  I graduated in the top 80% of my high school class.
[00:00:27]  Do people get it, or does it take a minute?
[00:00:29]  No, no.
[00:00:29]  I bet they don't.
[00:00:30]  But I always stop, and then I wait for the first person to laugh, then the second, and then the hundredth, and then the two hundredth.
[00:00:39]  Yes.
[00:00:41]  And I'll tell you why I say this.
[00:00:44]  People are amazed...
[00:00:52]  And I'm not complimenting myself.
[00:00:54]  I'm amazed too.
[00:00:56]  So it's not a compliment issue.
[00:00:58]  It's just a fact.
[00:01:00]  I have no burnout.
[00:01:03]  And I think a big part of it is I started late.
[00:01:10]  What do you mean you started late?
[00:01:12]  I started to work later.
[00:01:15]  I didn't work in elementary school or high school.
[00:01:18]  I just played.
[00:01:19]  Well, you know, someone who was also like that was Alan Dershowitz, interestingly.
[00:01:24]  By the way, did you guys go to the same Shiva?
[00:01:25]  Yes, we did, yes.
[00:01:26]  Wow.
[00:01:27]  He was a few years ahead of me, so I didn't know him.
[00:01:29]  He was a very...
[00:01:31]  Wait, did he say that?
[00:01:32]  Yes, he did.
[00:01:34]  He faked his own suicide in high school.
[00:01:38]  Oh, that's not funny.
[00:01:39]  No, it's not funny, but he was just a total...
[00:01:42]  He didn't care about school.
[00:01:44]  So wait, where did he go to elementary school?
[00:01:46]  Oh, he went to Brooklyn.
[00:01:47]  I think he went to Brooklyn.
[00:01:48]  And then he went to Harvard.
[00:01:50]  Yeah.
[00:01:51]  Oh, okay.
[00:01:53]  And you know what?
[00:01:53]  I saw him a few days ago, and he was telling this story.
[00:01:56]  He went by Avi, or Obby, instead of Alan as a child, apparently.
[00:02:03]  And he ran into someone from his high school.
[00:02:06]  This is like 20 years ago.
[00:02:08]  He's in his mid-80s.
[00:02:10]  And he introduced himself as Alan Dershowitz.
[00:02:13]  And the guy from the high school said, Oh, I know that name, Dershowitz.
[00:02:17]  Are you related to Avi Dershowitz?
[00:02:20]  And Alan said, No, no, I'm not.
[00:02:23]  And the guy said, Sorry, Alan said, No, I'm not.
[00:02:28]  But nothing came of him.
[00:02:30]  And the guy responded, Oh, yeah, well, that's not a shock.
[00:02:32]  We all could have.
[00:02:33]  Seeing that he went about it to nothing.
[00:02:35]  Oh, that's hilarious.
[00:02:36]  Isn't it?
[00:02:37]  There are a lot of people who kind of have that, and not that that was you, but didn't really put their heads down until later.
[00:02:44]  No, my parents thought I would end up nothing.
[00:02:46]  Really?
[00:02:46]  Yeah, absolutely.
[00:02:47]  Those people really interest me.
[00:02:50]  By the way, it was totally conscious.
[00:02:51]  I even wrote about it.
[00:02:53]  Wow.
[00:02:53]  I actually wrote about it in essays for classes that I... I'm doing what I want.
[00:03:03]  Now, it's very important that people understand, when I say I played, I was not going to parties.
[00:03:10]  I've never liked a party.
[00:03:12]  I don't like parties.
[00:03:13]  I know you don't.
[00:03:14]  Right.
[00:03:14]  So, what I did, I had a massive amount of fun.
[00:03:20]  First of all, much of the day at school, I laughed.
[00:03:25]  I will tell you, this is truly hilarious.
[00:03:30]  Although I may be the only one watching, listening, or listening who finds it hilarious.
[00:03:37]  Or participating.
[00:03:39]  Correct.
[00:03:41]  I didn't know how to refer to you.
[00:03:42]  That's right.
[00:03:43]  Or participating.
[00:03:45]  So here is an example in my Talmud class.
[00:03:49]  That is so cool.
[00:03:52]  You had a Talmud class.
[00:03:53]  Yes, of course.
[00:03:54]  That sounds nerdy.
[00:03:55]  Half the day was Judaic studies in Hebrew and half the day was secular studies in English.
[00:04:02]  And I learned a lot, obviously.
[00:04:04]  But I also horsed around a lot.
[00:04:06]  So in the Talmud class, and I never found Talmud riveting.
[00:04:11]  I don't blame the tone, but I blame me.
[00:04:14]  But it's just a fact.
[00:04:16]  It was an Aramaic to begin with.
[00:04:18]  My Aramaic is rusty.
[00:04:19]  My Hebrew is excellent, but my Aramaic is nothing.
[00:04:22]  And it was often on subjects that I didn't care about.
[00:04:25]  They were very, you know, legal minutia.
[00:04:29]  Anyway, so from the first, so September comes around.
[00:04:34]  We go to class the first day.
[00:04:37]  So I was sitting behind.
[00:04:40]  A guy, Isaac.
[00:04:42]  And what I would do...
[00:04:45]  There's no way you could fully relate to this.
[00:04:51]  Did you ever hear of the Publishers Clearinghouse?
[00:04:53]  I'm sure not.
[00:04:54]  Yeah, of course.
[00:04:54]  How?
[00:04:55]  Just, I don't know, living in the world.
[00:04:57]  You got mail?
[00:04:58]  You got mail from them?
[00:04:59]  No, I just heard of that name.
[00:05:01]  Okay, so Publishers Clearinghouse would send like 100 million Americans.
[00:05:06]  They would get an envelope.
[00:05:10]  With little stickers.
[00:05:13]  So they're like postage stamps.
[00:05:15]  You tear them.
[00:05:16]  They're perforated.
[00:05:17]  You tear them.
[00:05:18]  And you would put each of those stickers was the name of a magazine.
[00:05:25]  And that's why it's called Publishers Clearinghouse.
[00:05:28]  Publishers of magazines would use Publishers Clearinghouse to get subscribers.
[00:05:33]  I see.
[00:05:33]  So if I would, let's say, put down Popular Electronics, which I did a subscribe to.
[00:05:40]  So I would take, tear off the adhesive picture of Popular Electronics and stick it on the box for a reduced price, right?
[00:05:54]  Get it with me?
[00:05:55]  I'm with you.
[00:05:57]  So I would bring those into class and I would take one of the stickies, perhaps, you know, Popular Mechanics.
[00:06:07]  Or, I don't know, Sports Illustrated.
[00:06:10]  And I would stick it on Isaac's back.
[00:06:15]  Isaac would then go like this, and he would pull off a sticker of one of the magazines and get annoyed with me, which was the only point of it.
[00:06:27]  If he didn't get annoyed with me.
[00:06:28]  Yeah, of course.
[00:06:29]  That's what makes it fun.
[00:06:29]  There's no joy.
[00:06:32]  So I would do it about one or two more times.
[00:06:35]  And then for the rest of the year, all I would do is put my thumb on his back with no stab.
[00:06:43]  And he would still go like this.
[00:06:47]  So people have to understand, this is so childish what I'm describing, but it was so much fun driving him nuts.
[00:06:58]  When I went to school, every kid brought a briefcase, not a backpack.
[00:07:03]  That's so cute!
[00:07:04]  Yes, every kid.
[00:07:05]  The girls, too.
[00:07:05]  Everybody had a briefcase with their notebook and their books, right?
[00:07:10]  Their pencils, pens.
[00:07:14]  I was so bored in class.
[00:07:16]  That's a big factor.
[00:07:17]  It didn't matter if it was in English or Hebrew.
[00:07:19]  I was bored.
[00:07:22]  What I would do is I would arrange with my male cohorts.
[00:07:27]  There you go.
[00:07:28]  Cohort.
[00:07:29]  I would arrange with them.
[00:07:32]  At a certain sign that they would all take the girl's briefcase from the side of their seat and switch it with another girl's briefcase.
[00:07:45]  That's the kind of stuff I would do.
[00:07:48]  Yeah, I know, I believe you.
[00:07:49]  Oh, that's totally, yes.
[00:07:50]  No, it sounds like you're getting up from the water and doing the sign.
[00:07:54]  Yeah, going under and waving.

=== Pushing Into Fun (00:24) ===

[00:07:56]  The teacher would then say, all right, everybody, take out your notebooks, please.
[00:07:59]  And then the girls would go down, and it wasn't their briefcase, and they would yell or panic, right?
[00:08:07]  And I, the joy that that brought me.
[00:08:10]  I know, it's so fun.
[00:08:13]  It's immeasurable.
[00:08:14]  I used to push people in the pool, and they were like getting ready to, you know.
[00:08:19]  You did?
[00:08:19]  Yeah, they'd be standing on the edge.
[00:08:20]  Oh, the girls, I assume.