Today one of my Intro to Drama students gave me a YA novel called Another Faust, which she had inscribed with the following note: "To A, whose course made me want to be an English major (so I could learn more words like 'defenestrate'!)".

Grin.

Hey, not one but TWO Spanish Golden Age plays we read this semester featured defenestrations. (Apparently Madrid, like Scotland and Prague, is a place where you don't want to stand near a window in times of civil unrest.) I told them I didn't get to use the word very often, so I was going to make up for it by using it dozens of times in those classes. And I was as good as my word.

I also appreciated it when the last student out of the exam turned to me and said "I hope Duke sees the results of their hubris next year."

Double points for Duke-bashing and use of "hubris" (a term ID from the exam). He had obviously learned the lesson of a whole semester listening to me whine about college basketball and the plight of my beloved Tar Heels.