Day One

Ramblings Post # 30
With the change of the seasons, new performances open while other shows prepare to close their doors, hopefully with good reviews and no need to re-stage a production. We hope. They say that all of life is but a stage, and we as players come to strut our hour upon the stage only to heard from no more. And quite frankly think they are all sot. I'm playing my part, then sneaking back into the chorus.

My new law professor for the summer promises to be...well, and event unto itself. He is Bernie Mac doing a Southern Methodist preacher with touches of Col. Stabler in a court room full of scared students. The first two I'm fairly certain you can imagine...the last one I'll have to explain.

In High School back in ....that place I came from...we had a science professor who was retired military. Which war? I dunno, but I shudder to think of those who had to face him. He was this old white guy, in his mid to late sixties, with a crew cut and the same glasses they gave him the day he showed up for basic training. But he knew his stuff. And he wouldn't let you not know yours. He literally terrified you into learning.

That is my new law professor for Sales Law.

The class isn't that populated, and as fate would have it my seat on the seating chart is directly in front of the podium. We only had the one class and he already knows my name. Well. He called on it enough.

Let's just say this: You better have read the cases, understood the basics of them and be ready to give and answer you know.

Prof: "What section of the code controls here, Mr. (Terrified Student)?"

Student: "Well, I think..."

Prof: "You think? What do you mean you think? Which section controls here?"

Student: "Er, I..."

...and later on...

Prof: "What does the Statute of Frauds mean?"

Student 1: "Well, in transactions involving more than $500..."

Prof: "Who was your Contracts professor?"

Student 1: "Um, (Name of my contracts professor)."

Prof: "Oh, you had him? Well you know a simpler definition. He gave you one, I know because he doesn't know any big words."

Student 1 "It is a stipulation of law that"

Prof: "Are you kidding? I want the essence. Boil it down"

Student 1 "Er..."

Prof: "Mr.....(Another Terrified Student)

Student 2: (meekly) "Um...write stuff down?"

Prof: "Exactly. That a terms of a contract have to be written down. Or... do they?"

You see where this is going. I mean, this is DAY ONE. There are only four (2 guys, 2 girsl) of us as far as I can tell from the first year group, so I'm a little stunned that some of the older students weren't expecting this. As a professor he pulled answers like teeth with pliers and no anesthetic working his way around the room, calling on every single student. Those whose names he could remember he called frequently. And as I said, he figured out my name right quick.

Sure he was funny, cracking the occasional joke and intoning the concepts of law like verses of the bible. I kept half expecting him to start mentioning the building fund and the first offering. And more than once he let someone make three bad assumptions before showing them their error, asking questions and letting people give wrong answer then compounding their errors with more incorrectness.

He promises to be interesting. Once I get up enough courage to actually raise my hand to say something.

Barkeep. Whiskey. Leave the Bottle.