I was a percussion major when I was in university, and during a particular rehearsal of the student orchestra, my section kept getting things worse.

“When you’re too dumb to play anything,” the professor conducting us sneered, “they give you a couple of sticks, put you in the back and call you a percussionist.”"

A friend next to me whispered, “And if you’re too dumb to hang on to both sticks, they put you in front and call you a conductor.”

上大学时我主修打击乐，在一次学生交响乐队的彩排中，我所在的打击乐区表现不好，老是出错。

指挥我们的教授冷嘲热讽地说：“要是一个人笨到什么都不会演奏，我们就会给他两个小棍儿，让他到乐队后部去，我们管这样的人叫打击乐手。”

我身边的朋友悄悄对我说：“要是一个人连两个小棍儿都搞不定的话，就让他乐队最前面去，我们管这样的人叫指挥。”

（通讯员李斐然）