The week's stories

Here's some funny (or just embarrassing) stories from this last week:

While teaching one of my psychology classes, I noticed a boy and girl in the front row passing a note. There was no attempt at subtlety, so I assumed it must be actual notes from my class. But no, they kept passing it back and forth. After a minute or so of watching this, I confiscated it and watched as the two turned bright red. This is how the note reads:

B: Hey, what's up?
P: What, are we in kindergarten?
B: No... we've been in high school for three years now. Where've you been?
P: Hey, let's guess our teacher's name. I'll start. Natasha Brenneman.
B: Hmmm. Jemima Butterworth.

At this point I took the note and read it to myself. Understanding now why they were so embarrassed, I asked the class if they wanted to hear. Of course the answer was yes, so we all got a good laugh. I told the two perpetrators I'd give them extra credit if they could give my real name, and they really couldn't! They were so flustered at this point, but hey, they were the ones passing it right in front of me. Then I asked why both names represented plump people (Albert Brenneman from "Hitch" and Mrs. Butterworth of syrup fame). They about died. "No, no, that's not what we meant at all! We had no idea..." It was a great day. Since they're the kind of kids who can handle a little teasing, I taped the note to the door for all my students to see. I think I'm going to frame it.


Our upstairs neighbors and landlords asked us to babysit their three children while they went for a church interview. We were fine with that; the kids love us, and the oldest girl has already announced that she's going to marry Erik. We played hide and seek the whole time, and by the end we were running out of good places. It was my turn to count, so I sat in the living room and started counting using really weird voices, just to switch things up. Meanwhile, Erik "hid" on the couch by covering himself with throw pillows as the kids giggled. I finish counting, open my eyes... and see our landlords staring at Erik and I. If Erik hadn't already taken all the pillows, I would have been burrowing under them.