fuh-neeeee

S. told me this weekend that Julie Wonka is quite possibly the funniest person he's ever met. We both almost wet our pants on Saturday night at my birthday party. I wish I could describe her funniness, but to try to do so would be an injustice. You just gotta be there.

Last week in my rhetoric class, we were talking about the ways that metaphors shape the expressions we use everyday. For example, the metaphor "argument is war" shapes the way we conceive of argument when we say things like "I attacked his position" or when we talk about opponents and winners and losers. One of the metaphors we spent some time on is "sex is a game," which leads to expressions like "he's a player," "he cheated on me," "I scored last night," "I only made it to first base," "he plays for both teams," etc. As we were listing these expressions, one student threw out "playing with yourself" as an example, and of course the entire class erupted in laughter.

After that, I decided it was time to "switch gears" (metaphor: class is a journey) and spend some time on the Harriet McBryde Johnson piece they'd analyzed as part of the midterm. So, what do I say? Following a discussion of cheating and scoring and playing with yourself, I say, completely seriously, "okay, now, everyone take our your Johnson." As soon as it came out of my mouth, I caught myself, but didn't make eye contact with anyone. There was a silent moment during which many of the students were surely deciding whether to react, and then they didn't. So we moved on, switched gears, chewed on some ideas, saw things in a new light, and processed those ideas even further.

But boy, did I have fun telling that story this weekend. Laughter, it erupts.