Water, water, everywhere

What larks! Once again my academic colleagues have demonstrated that they hinna the sense they were born wi. Despite formidable intellects and fearsome track records in world-renowned research, they seem incapable of functioning at the level of a primary school child when it comes to everyday matters. Last night, it seems, someone helpfully left the tap running in the department's kitchen sink. Unfortunately, he (yes, it was definitely a 'he' - there are no women academic staff here) also abandoned a mug in the sink, thoughtlessly placed to completely cover the plughole. Result (unsurprisingly): flood. The kitchen carpet is absolutely sodden, and an odour of wet dogs is emanating from the floor.

I'd find this sort of behaviour easier to comprehend if they were from an Arts discipline - music, say... or English Lit... my kinda subject, in other words. In those fields, a lack of knowledge of basic scientific principles might almost be permissible. But the gormless bunch I work with are in Physical Sciences. [She shakes her head and rolls her eyes skyward.]