– making a lamp from a cheese grater if I were a little more handy, I’d make one of these for C. for Xmas. I might yet…in the meantime, here’s the story:
he tells this story about a friend’s girlfriend, who was, well, rich and dumb. (I have always envisioned her as blond, but that’s probably just my prejudice/imagination.) the “gang” was making tacos one night, and she was with them, and in the usual lots-of-people-making-food division of labor, she was given the task of grating the cheese: handed the grater, cheese, and bowl. whether this happened immediately or later I’m not certain, but her response was that she didn’t know how to grate cheese.
this became the official standard for ignorance, stupidity, or both: too dumb to grate cheese.
(of course, there is always the possibility of calculated incomptence, as Jonathan D. describes it.)