Wednesday, April 30, 2008

School burnout and a spider bite



For those among you who, like me, have to go through the grind of grading papers and poorly constructed essays, you know the feeling of being burnt out at this time of the year. Even if you don't have a stack high of essays proposing a hidden 'gay' relationship between Huck Finn and Jim (or George and Lennie), you know the feeling of wanting to say 'fuck it all'. That said, I'm sure that most -- nay, all of you -- are having a better spring than one of my students. I received a letter from his mom, accompanied by a doctor's note, that said that this student will have to withdraw for the remainder of the semester due to a serious medical condition. The condition: it appears that when he visited a family member in the southwest, he was bitten no less than five times by a Brown Recluse Spider.

I must admit I didn't know much about this arachnid so I did a little 'googling' and found this lovely image. I could see why this person doesn't have much interest in style guides or writing ledes, especially if his hand looks like the one in the photo. So, as I tell my students and friends: Always look under the toilet seats you sit upon.

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