My wife gasped audibly this morning when she read in the Concord Monitor that The College Board plans to remove the analogies section from the SAT exam. "This is awesome!" she exclaimed, "Matching analogies accomplishes for college placement what swimming does to get your driver’s license." This observation (from an English teacher) intrigued me, so I’ve spent the day interviewing very different types of people on the matter. Here’s what I’ve found. One young member of Buildings & Grounds shook his head thoughtfully—supporting the demise of the analogies section—and commented, "They were to college admission what Route 11 is to frogs…."

His companion disagreed—I think--observing: "Analogies are to SATs like what antihistamines are to phlegm." With that noted, I moved on to a Gordon Research scientist (this week we’re hosting 130 people studying Cellulases & Cellulosomes. "I regret it," he intoned. "They measured associative cognition, and contributed to SATs like mitochondria to healthy cell function." When I asked him to explain, and he handed me this, pointing to the worm-like squiggles inside the cell:

Others compared the role of analogies to "Seasickness is to ocean travel," "Children to ice cream," and "Math to classical music." Maybe it’s a good thing they’re getting rid of them.

Running the football into the endzone is to a football game.....

...what catching major air is to freestyle snowboarding?