All Things Must End & the DEA
Yesterday, I received The Life & Times of "Baby" Otto Zeplin (1) from Tasty Cakes in the mail. As this was my last full session with my students, I decided to read them the story in class & regale them with high-jinx, tom-foolery, & general horsing-off that was the imagined life of Otto Zeplin. Although I believe they found the story to be funny (which it was), I think this only furthered their impression of me that, at the time, I did not know they held. Let me explain. At the end of each semester, I ask my students to write a self-reflection on their progress throughout the entirety of the course. Ostensibly, they are to focus on practical ways in which their writing style altered, for the better or worse, due to the material we covered and projects we undertook. Every once in a while, a student who believes they are doing poorly will write the old "you are the greatest teacher ever" comment in a last ditch play to my ego. Although gratifying in a completely fabricated way, this does not work. But this semester, I had a few students write about me quite differently. Check it:
"I swear Professor Ware does drugs sometimes. Not just one drug, I think he mixes. It explains his oddities & munchies. The way he jumps from topic to topic and is always so excited. It's simply astounding."
"This course was weird as hell, mostly because it was not your typical college course. Joshua was crazy and I'm still skeptical that he wasn't drunk or hungover a few days this semester. But I won't say anything."
Now why would the Otto Zeplin cartoon contribute (albeit only in a small manner) to this overall impression? Below are two choice panels from the story. I think they are great & I laughed out loud while reading them to my students. Great stuff (Click on image for bigness if you cannot read the text):
"I swear Professor Ware does drugs sometimes. Not just one drug, I think he mixes. It explains his oddities & munchies. The way he jumps from topic to topic and is always so excited. It's simply astounding."
"This course was weird as hell, mostly because it was not your typical college course. Joshua was crazy and I'm still skeptical that he wasn't drunk or hungover a few days this semester. But I won't say anything."
Now why would the Otto Zeplin cartoon contribute (albeit only in a small manner) to this overall impression? Below are two choice panels from the story. I think they are great & I laughed out loud while reading them to my students. Great stuff (Click on image for bigness if you cannot read the text):
2 comments:
DUDE!!! This goes down in history as the most wicked-sweet blog entry ever! First, what would the students think if they had members of the family guest-speak? (I believe they would hold the same opinion.) Second, those where two of my favorite panels from the 'zine. Third, I had another sort of oddity around my apartment, and when a certain woman picked it up and read it, she said, I hope you never meet my kid. That made me feel like a star. A big, bright shining star.
Yes! I just found this today while searching for Otto Zeplin. Thanks for showing my book to your class! I'm glad you like it, the third volume should be out in a week or so.
BT Livermore
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