On the first day of a music appreciation class, the instructor told us, "The grading scale is curved. Breaking points for As, Bs, Cs, Ds often fall below the classic cutoff points of 90, 80, 70, and 60 percent."
Then, he paused and said, "Sometimes, they're embarrassingly below those points."
I thought that was an interesting way to say, "Look, just learn what you're supposed to about Count Basie and Duke Ellington, OK?"
