Class Hijinx

1:46 p.m.

A few days ago in my Business Law class we were talking about Tort Law. In particular, Negligence cases. For those of you unfamiliar, here's what you need to have a negligence case:

1. A responsibility to a person for their safety.
2. A breach in that responsibility.
3. The plaintiff suffers a legally recognizable injury.
4. The aforementioned breach of responsibility caused said injury.

See, the thing is, my professor substituted the word "duty" for "responsibility" when we were talking about these rules. And he kept saying it. "Duty," I mean.

I'm way too immature to hear that word multiple times in one sitting.

Professor: So I'm the defendant in this negligence case. My first question is, of course, did I have a duty? But let's explore this. What kind of a duty do I have to have? Is it a large duty? A small duty? Does the particular duty really matter? No. The fact is that it's my duty, and because I breached my duty, you were injured. You were injured because I didn't pay the proper attention to my duty.
Lee: *snrk*
Professor: You there - did I say something amusing? We've got a lot to cover today and I don't need the interruptions.
Lee: No...no, I'm sorry, my mind was wandering, sir. But I was listening. You were talking about duty.
Professor: Good. Now, back to my duty...

I'm not making that snatch of dialogue up, either. God, that class was a nightmare. Of hilarious proportions!

But I talk about my Business Law class a lot while telling you nothing of my Banking Economics class. So let's touch base on that one.

There is a nerd in my Econ class. This isn't too unusual, I suppose. I have nerds in a lot of my classes. I myself am sort of a nerd. But this guy....this guy is too nerdy even for me. He's thin as a rail, constantly wringing his hands and rubbing his arms like he's an old man, and he talks way too loud, as though his volume control was shut off ages ago. And he has a lisp.

He never raises his hand for anything, ever. He just starts talking....and talking....and talking...even if his talking is running over the prof's lecture. And he answers every question the prof throws out, including rhetorical ones. It's gotten to the point now that when he answers a question, the prof immediately asks, "Does anyone else know the answer?" Yeah, he actually says that. You have to be one dead annoying student for the professor to just try and ignore you like that, usually.

I felt kind of sorry for this guy in the beginning, because everybody was laughing at him, and I sympathize with nerds quite a bit. But this guy can get on anyone's nerves in a hurry. Today he tried to refute some of the basic laws of economics by arguing with our prof concerning something he read in the last chapters of the book that had nothing to do with what we were discussing. Finally the prof looked at him and said, "You're wrong. You're dead wrong. You are not right, and you aren't going to be right. You're talking about stuff that's been proven over and over and over by countless men who have studied this their entire lives. And on top of that, you're wasting the class's time."

Now, could this kid potentially be the next John Nash and show us all who the real economist is? Possibly. I don't think too many people liked John Nash during his hey-day, either.

Then again, here's a piece of actual dialogue from today's class:

Prof: I recognize that not everybody is going to be proficient at economics. I myself was never proficient at Accounting or Biology when I was an undergrad - I have a lot of respect for those of you that can succeed in those subjects, because I found them baffling. I sort of wish I'd taken Physics back in the day, rather than Biology, just because my father is a physicist and he could have helped me out, you know?
Class: *polite laughter*
Nerd-Linger: Oh, man, you shcrewed up big time. You definitely should've taken physhics. It'sh totally cool! Oh, by the way, I retract my previous anshwer I gave you - man, I don't know what I wash thinking on that one. Haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw! *shlurp*
Lee's Imagination: You know, kid, I can remember another group of people before the nerds that had a real thing for the physical sciences. *dons dusty fedora, leather jacket, and pulls out whip* They were called Nazis!

That last part of the nerd's speech was Captain Dorkwad sucking up his own free-flowing saliva. He's a spit factory, I guess. And the length of his ear-splittingly horrible laughter wasn't exaggerated. Nor was my imagined response.

It's like my dad always says: "Too much of anything is going to be a bad thing." Well, you were right, dad. That goes for nerdiness, too.

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