The Worst Nightmare

Donovan McNabb, ten-year NFL quarterback, did not know that after one 15-minute sudden-death overtime period, a regular-season game could end in a tie.

This, despite a tie game was played six years ago, and would happen once ever few years while McNabb was growing up and, presumably, following football.

Perhaps he didn't follow football at all, aside from his own team. In a way, that's kind of admirable. Perhaps he has a life outside of football.

But I think we all can empathize. I have a fear of doing a public reading, and mispronouncing a word I had seen in print all my life but never heard spoken. Or being asked about a political topic I should know more about, like Charlie Gibson asking Sarah Palin about the Bush Doctrine.

Probably the worst is, I'll be caught on video running into a well-known beautiful starlet I don't recognize and never heard of, and see it be spread all over the Internet. Or even meeting somebody I recognize but know nothing about, like Mariah Carey. She's had something like 19 #1 hits, and I can't even name a song or hum a bar.