Rube-Thanks for Legitimizing MY Way of LIfe

I remember doing a math quiz in 5th grade that required us to show our work. After looking over my papers, the teacher accused me of cheating from my neighbor’s quiz since my calculative work looked like gibberish. After leading the teacher through all the laborious tasks and 28 steps to arrive at my correct sums, she drew a couple of lines with arrows showing the 20 unnecessary steps I had taken to arrive at the answer. This was the first time I was introduced to the Rube Goldberg principle. It certainly wasn't the last.

I was about ten years old, learning the joy of cooking, when I was mixing too much Nestle Quick into a glass of milk. Hoping to make the ultimate in chocolaty goodness, I literally broke a sweat stirring this concoction, using my entire body to make the maximum motion possible.

When my mom stepped into the room she asked me what I was doing. After explaining that I was trying to mix the chocolate into the milk as much as was possible she asked why I didn't just make a more rapid motion at the wrist. I can't be positive but I sense she whispered "Rube" as she left the kitchen.

Some of us were born with a lack of common sense, seeing the distance between two points never as a straight line. We could be arguably dismissed as nitwits with no earthly purpose at all, and then, in enters Rube Goldberg, who made an art form of useless steps to arrive at some small task. The board game Mousetrap (did anybody ever really play the game?) was the epitome of this silly endeavor, but most kids had a great time setting it up and watching it all come undone.

Now as an adult I have been praised for my ability to think outside the box. To problem solve in creative ways and offer alternative solutions that bring originality to age old concerns. They don't seem to recognize that I can't see what's inside their box of typical easy answers, and I figure there's no benefit to my mentioning it.
http://www.rubegoldberg.com/