Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Intimidation/ Soap Operas /Casey Anthony Trial/ Coyotes

Today was my third day of summer school classes at the university. Immediately following my third and final class of the day, a guy who was maybe twenty or so commented to me that if one student scores far above the rest of the class on tests, it will adversely affect the grades of everyone else in the class. I've said nothing aloud in this class, and no assignments have been handed back. In any event, I certainly haven't been playing the Baby Genius card. I'm not sure where he got that idea, unless it could have been from the simple idea that I look even younger than I am, and I have to possess at least slightly higher than average intelligence for my perceived age to even be there.

I wasn't sure if a response was merited or not, so I nodded but said nothing. I don't know if it was a warning, a threat, or even a plea. I have no idea how to take it. It was good that it was a day that I was being picked up by hospital personnel instead of Jillian or Scott, because Jillian and Scott meet me at the perimeter of the campus in their car, but the hospital staff have to walk me to my first classroom and meet me outside the door of my last classroom.

It didn't help that the staff person was a bit late, and I really couldn't leave and risk missing my ride without getting into trouble, so I had little choice but to stand there and listen to him. When the staff person finally arrived and I could leave, it wasn't a staff person with whom I felt comfortable sharing the details of the incident. I texted Jillian. She told me not to worry about it ths once, but that she and Scott would pick me up after class tomorrow, because the first test is tomorrow, and that she would pick me up on Monday in case the tests are returned on that day.

I tweeted Judge Alex that most Internet sources acknowledge the presence of coyotes in all parts of Florida. He was uncharacteristically closed-minded: he's lived his entire life in Florida and hasn't seen one; therefore, there must not be any coyotes in Florida. A grad student in forensic biology at CFU read the tweet and tweeted to him and to me that they're not around much in south Florida, but that she's actually seen one in a yard in residential central Florida. He probably didn't believe her, either. I still don't want to be one of those "Internet trumps all other forms of information" people, but if enough credible sources say something is true . . . I've lived in California my entire life and have never seen a coyote, but I don't think anyone argues that there are no coyotes here.

I heard one of the talking heads mention that the Casey Anthony trial is heavily cutting into the ratings of daytime dramas. I can understand why. Soap operas don't move a whole lot faster than the snail'space at which the trials seems to be crawling. I never quite understood how people could be so caught up in soap operas, anyway. I suppose some people would wonder the same thing about how people can be caught up in the Casey Anthony trial.

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