THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Thursday, May 01, 2008

The definition of know: What the…?

Is there something wrong with my reading comprehension skills, or is there something seriously wrong with these two (or one of them, at least) statements, from an AP article:

“We’ve tried to tell everybody all along that Roger said he didn’t know Shaun and that Shaun Kelley said he didn’t know Roger. At the end of the day, we’re going to have confirmed that they didn’t know each other,” Hardin said, according to the report.

Kelley told The Times that Clemens was “an acquaintance,” saying he met him “a couple” of times after initially saying they had met only once.

Or is there some form of the English language I am not familiar with where if you meet someone one or more times, and you consider someone an acquaintance, you can say, that you “don’t know them, and they don’t know you,” AND pass a lie detector test?

I guess the inquiry goes something like this:

Q.  Do you know Roger Clemens?
A. No.

Q.  Does he know you?
A. No.

Q. Wait, we have here in our notes that you said that you met him a few times and that you are acquaintances?
A. That’s right.

Q.  Well, so you know him and he knows you, right?
A.  Well, we “know” each other, but we don’t really “know” each other.  I mean, how much can you really know someone anyway.  Heck, I’ve been married to my wife for 14 years, and sometimes I feel like I barely know her.

Q.  Oh, O.K.  Thank you very much.