Bad Advice Wednesday: Call in Sick

categories: Cocktail Hour

Comments Off on Bad Advice Wednesday: Call in Sick

Every year I come in and guest teach in our big intro lecture class, CRW 201. But this year I was sick so I wrote this to Wendy Brenner, who is currently running the class:

Woke up still sweating. Better, but not great.

Doesn’t look like I can do it.

How about you ask a student to read this:

David Gessner really wanted to be here. He has grown to love talking to 201. This was not always the case. At first he thought there was no tougher audience in the world than 201. When he spoke he felt a little like Rodney Dangerfield (a comedian from long ago). {Note to reader of this page: when you speak of Rodney squirm uncomfortably and wiggle your tie, or where a tie would be if you had one}

One year David decided he was going to wow the 201 audience. He had just written about about following the osprey (better known to you as seahawk) migration. He had gone into Cuba illegally and into the jungles of Venezuela following the birds. He had great pictures and a power point presentation, which was cutting edge back then.

He threw his heart into his presentation. He felt good when he was done and continued to feel good until he walked out the door after class along with the students. There he overheard one gum-snapping girl say to another: “That was the most boring fucking hour of my whole fucking life.”

Disheartened but not defeated, Gessner vowed he would get his revenge. If they thought that was boring, they hadn’t seen anything yet. The next year he asked a film student to sneak into 201 and sit in the front row, filming the class. Then he did this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuNjEs8mdrA