Chaos Spelled Backward

     There was another team project we had to do for seventh grade English. I cannot remember what the purpose/theme/goal of the assignment was, but we were supposed to present a skit to the rest of the class. Our group of six (four or six I think, I can only remember one other person for sure who was with me) was allowed to go to the school library, into the soundproof room with a big window that looked out on the rest of the library, to work on the skit during class.

     The creative juices started churning, and the soundproof room reminded one of us of the television show Get Smart. It was a comedy about a spy, Maxwell Smart, and his trusty sidekick, the beautiful Agent 99, during the Cold War - they had all kinds of gadgets, and Max was a bumbler. Well, there was something called the Cone of Silence that would come down over the table when Max was having a meeting with his bosses. It was silly. The soundproof room we were in was like the cone of silence.

     And the skit started to revolve around references to the show Get Smart. Max worked for the good guys in a group called CONTROL, and the bad guys were all members of KAOS, pronounced, chaos. Well, in our skit, there were people from SOAK – which was KAOS backwards.

     One day the librarian came in and told us that we were so loud, that the soundproof room could no longer contain our noise, and could be be a little quieter! How about that!

     And when we finally performed the skit for the class, no one realized that SOAK was KAOS backwards – without that, the skit could not be understood at all. Once again, Miss Armstrong was a tad confused about something I was involved with.

     But, for what it is worth, anytime Get Smart comes up in the media or conversation, I immediately think of SOAK – how could people not get that? And I remember that not all soundproof rooms work as effectively as Cones of Silence. And fond memories can come out of chaos.

132 20150512 Chaos spelled backward