I do have to tell this story: many many years ago I was a clerk in a bookshop on a busy downtown street. It was August, and the window dressers had set up a large display of reference books for a back-to-school promotion. One day a man came in and asked me for Roger's Treasure. I looked through the history and fiction section before I realized that he had seen Roget's Thesaurus in the window. He apparently thought it was a thrilling story of Captain Kidd and the pirates of the Spanish Main.

Ever since, I have use the anecdote as a test. If I mention the reference book promotion and Roger's Treasure and the listener laughs, I know I have found a truely literate person.