[etni] Monologue
- From: Israel Cohen <cohen.izzy@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2012 21:54:47 +0200
I was sent to a 2-week summer Science Camp by my 11th grade Chemistry
teacher, Miss Dorothy Thomas. Miss Thomas was a *very* large woman. We
called her "Big Dot". At the end of each 6-weeks, Miss Thomas would conduct
a "ceremony" in class during which she announced each student's
grade. During one of these dreaded events in late spring, Miss Thomas
arrived at my name and said: Cohen B. The class went wild and chanted:
"Cohen got a B. Cohen got a B." Miss Thomas paused a moment, looked around
the class, and said: "Irving knows as much chemistry as anyone in this
room. I'm changing that to an A right now." And she did.
Someone on an internet group asked: "How did you ever have the nerve to hang
a copy of Matisse's *Blue Nude* on the boss' wall?"
I'll try to explain that with another "Big Dot" story. The class
was noisier than usual one day and Miss Thomas announced a
"punishment". Beginning tomorrow morning, several of us would be called
upon each day to give a 2 or 3-minute summary of something very new in the
scientific world. We could find topics for this purpose on the Science page
of Newsweek or in the Scientific American monthly magazine, or
wherever. After a few students whose last name began with A or B, it was my
turn to present a scientific monologue..
I was at that time reading a science fiction novel about a mind-transfer
experiment involving a professor at a well-known university and one of his
students. I decided to use the plot of this novel as my "topic". Of course,
I told my closest friends in advance. And it seems they told nearly
everyone else. As the plot unfolded, my fellow students listened with
disbelief (that I would do such a thing). But Miss Thomas
hung on to every word. Finally, I described how, after a
public demonstration of this phenomenon, the student gave an
eloquent disquisition about why the "transfer" had failed, after which
the student went to the professor's home and the professor went to
the student's favorite hangout. Amid the laughter of my classmates,
Miss Thomas told me to take my seat and announced that there would be
no more 2-minute summaries.
In retrospect, I myself wonder how I had the chutzpa to do such a thing.
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