Saturday, January 31, 2009

Imaginative FAIL

Before my Shakespeare class began the other day, a student turned to me and said,
"Can I ask you a question? Maybe kinda personal?"

"Um," I said. "Maybe."

"Are you married to another professor at RU?"

"Oh!" I said, and smiled, thinking that there was probably someone in another department with the same last name. "No, I'm not."

"No?" She said. "Really? Because there's another professor in the English department who teaches Shakespeare--Dr. So-and-So? And I thought you might be married."
Now, I assume my student doesn't know that Dr. So-and-So and I are not equally heterosexual. And while I suppose it's nice that her suspicion that we might be married wasn't disturbed by the fact that we do not share a last name, the only evidence she seemed to have in support of our being married was that we both teach Shakespeare.

Because really: what the hell would either of us have in common with a normal person?

5 comments:

life_of_a_fool said...

the students reasoning is hilarious. Weird, but funny.

Doctor Cleveland said...

I like the idea that all Shakespeareans are married off in pairs, like amateur detectives on a bad TV show.

I'm also trying hard not to envision what it would be like to take a job that came with the expectation that you would marry one of your colleagues.

Susan said...

I'm just thinking that there would be some VERY strange marriages out there. . .

It does suggest that the English department is a comedy (where they are all married off) rather than a tragedy, which is a good thing.

Flavia said...

Susan: ha! Indeed. Though I'm sure we all feel the need, occasionally, to bite out our own tongue or saw off someone else's.

Anonymous said...

Oh man. By that criteria, I am married to the guy in my department who wears the same three pairs of faded Dockers that sag in the butt with button-down shirts in a range of colors from puce to dun. But, hey, we work on the same area -- so, why not?