laymen's terms

yeah, this was funny:

i tuned in to the school board meeting tonight to hear them
talking about switching banks, and the treasurer was just
saying that the interest rates would remain the same as
with the previous lenders, when a particularly dense person
piped up to ask:

" and what is that rate? could i, i've never been privy
to what our interest rate was..."

i knew she had heard this word, privy, and had been
dying to use it... it doesn't really apply here, i mean, just
because no one told you what the interest rate was,
doesn't mean you weren't privy, it simply means you
didn't ask.


treasurer: oh, that's posted in the wall street journal,
it's whatever so & so decides, but it's a variable rate...

dense person: and in layman's terms (unsuccessfully
attempting a sweet smile) that means...?

nonplussed treasurer: well, currently it's 4.??%....

dense person: somehow satisfied by numbers
that probably meant nothing to her: okay...

So she managed to use two very impressive words,
privy and layman's terms, only to show again how
ignorant she is.