2 stories:

1. My Corporations professor calls on people in order of where they sit, going down one row, and then snaking back the next row, etc. He only gets to a handful of people each day and it's a big class, so he made it through once but is only about 1/3 of the way back in his second pass. I sit in the fourth row, second from the end he starts on, and last week he got to the next-to-last person in the row in front of me, so I was going to be third today, and then the rest of my row, etc. So I get to class about a minute and a half late this morning -- it's an 8:30 class; I try -- and my row was *completely empty.* No one was there. At all. My friend who sits next to me did show up about five minutes later, but still, that was 2 out of about 7 in the row -- and I could see the guy in the center section, who surely expected to be safe, since there were 7 people to get through before him, pretty frantically reading ahead, in case he got called on.

During the 10-minute break in the middle of class, I noticed most of my row scattered around the room, just not in their seats -- so they wouldn't get called on (he skips you if he doesn't see you in your seat). It turned out that since tomorrow's the last day of class the professor wanted to get through the material and didn't call on anyone -- so it didn't really matter -- but it seemed awfully silly to me that the rest of my row was so concerned about getting called on. It's not like this professor's questions are particularly vexing, they're just summarize the facts of the case, maybe answer a couple of short questions about them, and he jumps right in with the answer if anyone seems like they have no idea -- so it's not torture. I don't know, called on twice a semester, you can't just suck it up and deal? Silly. Silly silly silly.

2. On the way back from class, I stopped in at a bakery and got a muffin -- I hadn't eaten anything before class. The woman behind me in line ordered a full-size chocolate cake. The guy behind the counter, out of reflex I'm sure, asked if it was for here or to go. The woman exploded at him. "For here. I'm going to eat an entire chocolate cake sitting right here, obviously. It's to go. Clearly. Gosh." And then she muttered something under her breath that is probably unprintable anyway. All that mental energy used up. Wow. Was it worth it? Did she really think he thought she was going to eat the cake there? I bet she beats her kids.