Stupid Distributor Questions

HUH??????? First off, I never implied you were an idiot. Secondly, you can just turn the distributor. to get the rotor to point at a certain electrode, since the base will turn and not the shaft where the points get opened and closed from. #1 can be wherever you choose it to be, but since the engineers based plug wire length off it being setup like the FSM, that is how it gets setup most of the time. I have seen mechanics put #1 at pretty much every position on the cap. The engine does not care where #1 is on the cap.
Once again, not implying you are an idiot. How you choose to do things is fine, I am just stating a fact about engines, regardless of make. Your input is always welcome. I called the dudes at the factory "boneheads", since most were high school dropouts(although there were some smart folks thrown in there) and would do some dumb ****. My old boss worked at pontiac and told me the horror stories.