Malevolent harlots in their 20s rock

In an e-mail from a high school friend who I've seen once or twice in the last decade, but have kept in touch with through her online presence:

"Is it just me, or are our twenties just terrible? I can't wait to be done with them."

Yup. 23 through 26 were pretty darn good, but the late twenties have pretty much bit the big one. Here's hoping the thirties rock.

Speaking of which, I used the word "rock" as a verb in class the other day. I was talking about a student's thesis statement that we had transcribed on the board. We were talking about all the good things the sentences had in it, and all of a sudden I was tired of saying that this was effective and that this was good, so I said, "This... rocks as well." I paused a long time before I said it and got quite a few laughs.

We were also discussing the word "malevolent," which is one of our words of the day. I called on a couple of kids to share their sentences using the word correctly, and would get answers like, "The malevolent boy got in trouble," so I would ask them what sort of things made him malevolent. It turned into a brief discussion of malevolent behavior, and I mentioned putting the head of a dead horse in someone's bed while he slept. I'm sure none of the kids got the Godfather reference, but at least one of them noticed my comment and laughed. Sometimes, it's only that I amuse myself.

The last funny story of the week involves me going through the list of words of the day as a review and coming across the room "tyrant." When I asked a kid what it meant, my funny colleague with whom I share a room made this big production of pointing at me and grinning. It was pretty funny. But what was even funnier was that the next word was the word "harlot." All I had to do was glance at her to get the whole class - and her - roaring in laughter.

Tomorrow is Professional Development Day. In a rare move of civility, they're giving us the day to grade papers and plan units. Amazing. I really am touched and happy about it.