On another occasion, I attended a book signing for the science fiction writer David Weber. After he gave his (very interesting) talk, I asked him to do me a favor. In some of his Honor Harrington books, he has a major character named "Rob S. Pierre," and I asked him not to do anything like that again. He said that he thought it was clever when he did it, but agreed it was a bad joke and promised he wouldn't do it again. A young woman asked, "What was the joke?"

Weber said, "It's a play on the name 'Robespierre'."

"Who's Robespierre?"

"One of the movers and shakers of the French Revolution."

"What's the French Revolution?" Everyone else there just looked at her, and we all apparently decided it wasn't worth trying to explain one of the major events of history to her.