Quoth the raven

I take attendance by having the students answer a question.

Quoth the raven, "________________". (See previously.)

Traditionalists were numerous (four!), some with a modern take:

• nevermore (x 4)
• forevermore (I know this b/c the Simpsons)
• evermore
• never (Swarth)more
• To Whatever End

Alternate animal noises:

• tweet
• moo
• woof
• quack?
• "caw"
• skrrrrt
• caawwww

Some students apparently thought the raven was trying to politely decline something, or greeting someone, or continuing an ongoing conversation:

• hello
• sup
• suhhhh
• hi
• no
• eat my shorts
• I'd rather not
• party like it's 1999
• I'm ravin' mad

I have no idea how a raven would pronounce ":(", but I'd like to see it attempted. Similarly, "burp" could be an interesting spectator event.

The "Modernity Makes Me Feel Old" Medallion goes to "that's so raven", for taking my highfalutin' literary reference and turning it into a pop-culture reference accessible exclusively to tween-targeting advertising conglomerates.

The Non-Sequitur Plaque goes to the student who wrote, "*drops cheese". Runner-up is "swallowing in sadness", about which I can only say: [sic].

This post's theme word is otic (adj), "relating to the ear." In a moment of otic confusion, I hallucinated a chortling, cheese-dispensing raven.

Your hidden talent?

I take attendance by having the students answer a question.

What is one of your hidden talents?

Once again, my students are brimming with talent. "Sleeping" and "procrastinating" (and variants thereon) were popular, of course --- remember, these are undergraduates. They don't yet know how to sugarcoat those as "restoring my equilibrium" and "organizing my schedule around my personal priorities".

The fundamental talents to cover the bottom part of Maslow's hierarchy.

• guessing all the ingredients used in a dish
• catching gummy bears in my mouth (<-- a="" addendum="" an="" disputed="" in="" later="" li="" student="" this="">
• navigating with cardinal directions (I'm bad at left and right though...)
• I can distinguish flavors in food really well.
• putting too much cinnamon in everything somehow

Psychological, middling-Maslow needs might be met by:

• Calming down a group of 30+ children.
• appearing unexpectedly

And the only thing for self-actualization is, of course, self-reference and other circular reasoning:

• Hiding my talents from others.
• can't tell
• paying attention to lecture while filling out the attendance sheet

Touché.

I am most astonished by the student who wrote "flying".


This post's theme word is foozle (v), "to botch or bungle", or (n) "a botched attempt at something." I thought I could juggle, but my complete foozle indicates it's a very hidden talent.