Posted by Robert Dilley on May 12, 2003 at 04:16:15 from 216.211.5.130 user rdilley.
Knowing TARS' love of the eruditely irrelevant, I cannot pass up the opportunity to point out that the Mason-Dixon line long predated the Civil War Between the States (that should satisfy both sides of the line).
It was surveyed 1763-7 by two British astronomers (either a Callum ancestor, perhaps?) to settle a property dispute between two landed British families: the Penns of Pennsylvania and the Calverts (Lords Baltimore) of Maryland.
As for degrees -- this story depends on knowing that in the US the qualifications known in the UK and Canada as BSc and MSc are usually called just BS and MS.
An Iowa farmer has a son who, unusually for that particular part of the state, had gone to college. A neighbour (or "neighbor", Ed, since it is an American story) asks how the boy was doing.
"Just got his BS" replies the father.
The neighbour, being a farmer, knew all about BS. "Reckon that's all they could teach him, then", he said. "He coming home to do some honest work now?"
No, says the father. "He's staying on to get an MS."
"MS" asks his companion. "What's that then?"
"Well, I reckon More of the Same".
"Makes sense" says the neighbour. "Then is he coming home?"
"Seems not," says the first. "Says he wants to go on to get something called a PhD."
"What in tarnation is a PhD?'
"Reckon same as a BS -- just Piled Higher and Deeper".